Point of No Return
by belle amia
Summary: harry potter's sixth year at hogwarts is full of surprises...what else is new? some of these surprises are for the better, and two for the worst.
1. Default Chapter

Harry Potter and Christine Davet

Chapter 1: The Burrow Again

Christine Davet was the first to arrive at the Weasley home for the last week of summer before term began. She had been invited by Ron Weasley, one of her best friends from Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had met Ron, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in her first year at school. At first Hermione was her biggest enemy; they were always competing for the best grades. But eventually, they had turned their passion for grades into a strong friendship, then with that whole Halloween troll thing, they had become friends with Harry and Ron.

'I love coming to this house,' Christine thought to herself as she unpacked her suitcase. Since her first year at school, the four friends had always been invited to the Weasley home right before term began again.

Christine was not a short person, but she was not tall either. Her dark, wavy, slightly curly hair hung to the middle of her back. She had the eyes the color of dark chocolate with a sparkling shimmer to them. Christine had finished unpacking her clothes and had placed them into a drawer Ginny Weasley had left empty for her. Christine's parents had allowed her to visit the Weasleys and her friends, Harry,and Hermione, before going back to Hogwarts.

As she helped Mrs. Weasley and Ginny prepare dinner and set the table for that night, for there would be twelve of them tonight, she heard Ron and Harry walk up the stairs.

Harry saw the bright color of orange all around him, broomsticks zooming by everywhere he looked. The crowds went wild as the seeker made an incredible dive and caught the snitch as the Chudley Cannons won the game. Actually Harry had just walked into his best friend's room. It was no secret that Ron was a Cannon fan, but it was also no secret that he never attempted to clean the room itself. An old Potions paper was lying on the floor next to what looked like his Monster Book of Monsters. His scarlett and gold Gryffindor scarf was scattered across a pile of clothes that was so high, Harry had trouble getting to the bed next to it. Drawers were half full of clothes, and others were so full, sleeves and socks were sticking out at different angles.

"Harry? What are you doing?"Christine asked as she tried to fit through the door Harry was standing in.

"Nothing, just wondering why his mother hasn't killed him yet. You know he should really try and clean this every once in a while. I think that cauldron has something growing in it," Harry replied stepping further into the room.

"Hmm, that wasn't there earlier," Ron muttered under his breath as he entered the room as well.

"So what do you want to do now? We could go play Quidditch outside," Ron said admiring a poster with the Keeper blocking a flying quaffle, before being knocked off his broom by a bludger.

"Shouldn't we wait for Herm–"

"Hermione so we can what, Harry Potter?" The three of them looked up and saw Hermione standing in the doorway. Her appearance had definitely changed since the last term. Her bushy brown hair was gone and had become darker and wavy, and her eyes were still the same light brown color they had been since first year.however she wasn't the only that lookeddifferent,they all had changed since they last saw each other.Harry had become more reserved in his personality, Ron had gotten taller,Hermione had lost her bushy hair and Christinehad stopped being a perfectionist. Sure she still had high standards for herself and her friends, but now they were within reach of reality.

"So we can, er..." Harry looked over at Ron for some help. Christine knew what both Harry and Ron were thinking.

"Let's see," said Christine walking from behind Harry and joining Hermione in the quest for what the boy's wanted, "there's only two things they usually want and dinner's almost ready so that leaves one other option."

"Homework." smiled the girls in a teasing tone. Harry and Ron blushed and knew that nothing had changed just because they were now in their sixth year.

"Kids come on down dinner is ready!" they heard Mrs. Weasley yell from the kitchen.Christineand her friends worked their way downstairs to the smell of chicken, homemade bread and vegetables on the table.

"We got the letters from Hogwarts today, all five of them are here. I was thinking that after you all got settled we could go to Diagon Alley first thing in the morning. We are going to have to get everything tomorrow otherwise you won't have any books or supplies," Mrs. Weasley said with a bit of urgency in her voice.

The next morning Christine, Hermione and Ginny made their way downstairs early, so they would have time to eat breakfast before visiting Diagon Alley. It was exactly asChristine had remembered it, enchanting and mysterious. Kids of all ages had their noses pressed against the windows of stores and dreaming of the newest broom model; nothing had changed, except that everyone seemed to be on high alert.

"It's probably because Voldemort is back,"Christine thought to herself as she passed the pet store where Hermione had bought Crookshanks. Suddenly, people began screaming and panicking all through the street.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked as they walked out of Flourish and Blotts.

"I don't know," stammered Ron as he too came out of Flourish and Blotts followed by his mother and father.

"Kids get to the Leaky Cauldron.Use their fireplace and get back to the Burrow. Now!" yelled Mr. Weasley.

When everyone was safely back at the Burrow, nobody understood what was going on except Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

"What was that about?" Hermione asked as she walked over to sit on the couch with Christine and Ginny.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked at each other, trying to decide whether or not to tell the children what was going on. After a moment or two of thinking, Mr. Weasley spoke.

"All you kids need to know is to be on your guard at all times, even when you go back to school. Something's about to happen, but until we have more information, you're just going to have to take my word for it. Now, it's late and we have to be up early tomorrow. I suggest we all pack and go to bed."

The first day back to school was upon them. As usual with so many people, the morning was in a whirlwind of remembering and forgetting things. The Weasleys promised to send whatever was left behind.

The station was full of muggles, more than usual, but nothing out of the ordinary. As the scarlett train gleamed in the sunlight, Christine, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny all said their good-byes and again were on their way to school they loved, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


	2. chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Hogwarts hadn't changed at all since the summer holidays started, except for the faces. Dean Thomas had grown taller and had lost the little boy face he had last year. Neville had gotten taller as well, but still had the same chubby face. Lavender and Parvati still looked the same, but had matured over summer. It still had it's welcoming, mysterious manner. In the dark, it's windows looked like fireflies against a night sky. As they got off the train, the familiar sound of Hagrid's booming voice rang in their ears. Christine, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione all got into one of the carriages and arrived shortly at the castle.

"Glad to be back Harry?" asked Hermione as she watched Harry stare out the window.

"Yeah," he replied unenthusiastically, and he returned to gazing at the castle. Christine knew why he was like this and that he must be hurting pretty bad if even Hogwarts couldn't cheer him up.

They entered the Great Hall, took their seats, and waited for Professor McGonagall to let the first years into the Hall. The friends patiently waited for the Sorting Ceremony to finish, but Ron's stomach kept making loud rumbling noises, making the rest of them all the more hungry. Finally, thefood appeared on the tables, and everyone was stuffing their faces with the delicious food. They used the dinner to catch upwith their friends and talk about the summer holidays. Christine and Harry discovered that Lavender and Parvati had gone to Rome for three weeks with Lavender's family, and that Neville had spent the summer looking for his toad, again. As the feast came to an end,Dumbledore finished with his usual beginning of the year speech and sent the students back to their houses. Christine and Hermione were talking by the fire in the Gryffindor common room when Harry, Ron, Ginny and Dean came through the door.

"Hey guys," Christine greeted them as they came to join them by the fire.

"Well, are you ready to face Snape tomorrow. Or even better we have Potions with Slytherin tomorrow too," Dean said, trying to start the conversation.

"You're kidding right?" replied Christine hoping with all her heart that Dean had been mistaken or joking.

"Nope, I just saw the schedule for this week. We start out every day this week in class with them," when Dean said this, his four friends cringed with dread.

"Looking forward to Quidditch, Harry?" Ginny inquired, trying to get him involved with the conversation. But Harry just nodded and went back to staring at the fire in his favorite chair. Christine, who was sitting across from him, noticed that he wouldn't blink when he looked into the fire. As the rest of the group began to talk on another topic, Christine walked over to talk to Harry.

"Harry, are you alright? Ever since we got here you've seemed, well, distant," she said in a whisper. At first he didn't respond, but as she looked away and walked behind his chair, he muttered a reply.

"I can't...never mind you wouldn't understand," Harry went back to staring into the fire. She looked back at him, and walked up to her room.

As the first lessons began to approach, the seasons started change. Soon, Hogwarts was covered in a powdery white blanket of snow. The dungeons felt like a freezer and especially in the early morning. However, the cold hadn't just seeped through into the dungeons, it had also seeped through into Snape. If at all possible, he seemed to be even angrier than when Harry had looked into the Pensieve that contained his thoughts. That day, he assigned Christine and Hermione extra homework for answering almost every question on the summer homework assignment right. His reasoning was, "Nobody could possibly have all the answers to the homework this thoroughly answered unless they plagiarized the assignment." But when Malfoy turned his homework in and admitted that he "took some of the answers from the book," whcih was not true since he even copieda name from the book, butSnape stillgave him full credit for it.

In everything that had happened in the last weeks of last year, everyone forgot about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. It only dawned on Christine that there would be a new teacher at Hogwarts when she heard his voice in the classroom.

"Hello class. I am your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Twopenny. I wish if someone could tell me where you left off at the end of last year?" said the professor at the beginning of class. He was a tall man who had light brown hair and blue eyes. But somehow, he looked familiar, not only to Christine, but Ron, Harry, and Hermione as well.

Hermione leaned in to talk to Christine while Professor Twopenny was still trying to figure out where he should start.

"Psst...Psst, Christine! Doesn't he look like someone we know?"

"Ya, but who?" interrupted Harry, who noticed that he was now partnering people together for the demonstration.

"Mr...Potter, is it? You and Miss...Granger will be partners for this experiment as will Mr. Weasley and Miss Davet will be partners as well," he continued not looking down to his list but as if he knew them. The four of them didn't say anything to him about this during class, but waited until they got back to the common room after lessons and dinner.

"I've seen him before somewhere. I know I have. But where?" Harry asked as he paced the floor of the common room in front of the fire.

"He seems to know us," piped in Christine from behind the book she was reading, "because when he was pairing us, he didn't even look down at his list to learn our names, Ron."

"Maybe he knows our parents," Ron answered trying to figure out the riddle.

"And how would that be? My parents are muggles. The only people he might know from my family would be Carreen and Rhett," replied Christine, "And Carreen has been in Paris, Rhett in Boston."

"Maybe he talked to McGonagall –" Hermione was cut off in mid sentence by Harry.

"And that's another thing, I don't remember seeing him at the feast yesterday."

"Well then Ron, I think we should send a letter to your dad about it. But we have to be careful with what we say," suggested Hermione as she watched Hedwig fly through the window.

"Whatever we decide to do, we have to keep it secret," Christine reminded them. They talked on into the night about what they could do, and when they couldn't decide on anything, they went to bed.

Two weeks had passed since the night of the new teacher discussion. Nobody had made any progress as to who he was, but they all liked him. He was a very good teacher and reminded Christine of Lupin. One day, Hermione and Christine went to talk to give him a note from Professor McGonagall, but he was not in his office. However, while they were there, Christine noticed that his trunk had the initials K.S. on it.

"Hermione, take a look at this," she gestured while still examining the trunk. Hermione walked over and looked up at the initials.

"What do you think it means?" Christine continued, she and Hermione were now walking out of the office, they had spotted Professor Twopenny at the Quidditch pitch through the window.

"I think it means we need to talk to everyone else, now," Hermione replied with a sense of urgency in her voice.

They found the professor, gave him the note, and waited for Harry and Ron, who were practicing.

"Hey guys what's up?" Ron asked walking up to the girls.

"We need to write a letter to your dad right away Ron, Professor Twopenny's trunk has the initials K.S. on it. What could that stand for?" Christine said in a hurried whisper.

"Maybe it's not his trunk, maybe it's his uncle's trunk or something," Ron answered.

"No that's not it," Harry said, his eyes glazed over, "he knows us 'cause he's in the _Order!"_

"That's it! It's..." Christine looked around to make sure nobody could hear them and when she thought the cost was clear she whispered, "Kingsley Shackelbolt!"

hey guys! hope you like this chapter, sry it took so long to get up but now im only doin it cuz my cousin is the only one who wants me to! no one else reviewed! please r&r and let me kno if u find any errors in ne thing!


	3. chapter 3

Chapter 3:

"Oh, of course!" Hermione said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, as they made their way back to the common room. "We didn't recognize him because he looks different."

"Hermione, that's not a very nice thing to say. I mean, sure he looks a little older, but we hav–" Christine didn't get to finish her sentence; she had been suddenly interrupted by Hermione.

"NO! Not like that, please he couldn't have changed that much. I mean his eyes are a different color, his skin is a little darker, nose longer, hair darker, you get it?" She looked at the blank stares on her friends faces. Hermione on the other hand, had the look of a mother who was at her wit's end.

"Hermione, do you honestly think that we are that thick? I mean come on, we aren't stupid, I was just teasing you when I was talkin' about Kingsley lookin' older." Christine saw that apparently the joke had not been amusing to Hermione, but Harry and Ron were trying to suppress their laughter.

"But why would he have to disguise himself, I mean he's an Auror for the Ministry?" Ron asked, with the most confused look on his face after his fit of giggles had passed.

"Oh honestly Ronald! Sometimes I think that wallpaper paste could out wit you!" Hermione snapped back. "Obviously he doesn't want to be recognized as an Auror."

"Well sorry Hermione, I mean if it's that obvious, I'm sorry I couldn't pick up on it sooner."

This bickering continued all the way up to Gryffindor Tower; Harry and Christine had learned to block out most of it by now. When they reached the common room, Christine and Hermione took their favorite seats next to the fire, and waited for Harry and Ron to change out of their practice robes.

"Hermione, have you noticed anything different about Harry since we found out about Kingsley?" Christine whispered timidly, as she watched the boys walk up the stairs to their dormitory.

"Yeah, he doesn't seem like he hates it here any more. It's almost like he's back to normal. Losing Sirius was really hard on him," Hermione responded.

"Well now who's being Captain Obvious? Sirius was the only..." Christine stopped abruptly as she noticed Harry and Ron returning.

"Ok, the way I see it we have two options. We can either talk to Professor Twopenny or write to Ron's dad. Either way we might not get any information, but we have to try," Harry started when everyone was settled.

After thinking for a minute in silence, Christine answered, "Why don't we ask the professor and if we don't find anything out, ask Mr. Weasley?"

"That sounds good to me."

"Me too, Ron do you think you could ask your dad if we need to ask him?" Hermione asked him.

"Yeah no problem, the problem we might have, is receiving the answer we want from him." However, the vote was unanimous they would talk to the professor then write to Mr Weasley. They stayed up and talked about numerous things for a while before finally going to bed.

The next morning, the friends met in the Great Hall for breakfast. The mail had arrived and with it letters from Christine's family. Christine was not the first of her family to attend Hogwarts. In fact, she was the third one to attend the magic school. Her older brother Rhett, and sister Careen had already left Hogwarts, as they were twins and older than Christine by about 2 years. She hadn't heard from either one of them in a long time, and was surprised when both letters arrived from Boston and Paris on the same day. She eagerly opened her sister's letter first and read:

_Dear Christine,_

_How are you? I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to write you, but work has been chaotic for the last couple of months_. _I miss you so much, say hi to everyone for me and think of me. Oh yeah, and as to your question in your last letter, sorry the answer is no. _

_Love ya sis!_

_Careen_

"Dang it!" Christine yelled out loud, forgetting that nobody else knew what she was talking about. She looked up to see if anyone had heard her, but the question was who _hadn't_ heard her, as everyone in the Great Hall stared at her. She smiled weakly, and looked back down at the table. The question that her sister had referred to in the letter was a personal one. Her sister had been working for Flourish and Blotts and Hogwarts at the same time. Her work had taken her to Paris where she met and started dating this guy,named Eric. He was a wizard working for Gringotts in Paris, when they met. Things had been getting very serious, and Christine wanted to know if he had proposed to Careen yet. Feeling sorry for her sister, she re-read the letter to make sure she hadn't missed anything. When she was sure she hadn't, she turned to her brother's letter:

_HeyChristy,_

_How's everything at Hogwarts? I hear that you and Hermione are taking some 'extra classes' this year? Well, don't over do it. Nothing much is going on here. Sorry this is going to be short, I have a meeting in like thirty minutes, so take care! If you don't get a letter from me by Christmas, tell the family that I miss them and love them. _

_Rhett_

When Christine finished reading the letters, she excused herself from the table and ran to her dormitory to store the letters. She returned moments later, in time to meet her friends outside the Great Hall.

"Ready?" she said, as she grabbed her bag from Harry.

"As ready as we're gonna get. Who knows what we're up against with Snape," replied Ron as they began their walk to the dungeons.

Overall the lesson went pretty well; Snape ended up only taking twenty points away from Gryffindor, and yelled only once at Harry, which Christine thought was pretty unnecessary since Malfoy had added the extra dragon claw to the ingredients. When they left, Christine thought that all in all, the lesson was pretty quiet.

That evening at dinner, Christine noticed that Professor Twopenny had returned. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who had noticed this as Hermione and Harry began frantically whispering across the table. But as usual, Ron hadn't noticed anything and had his face buried in his chicken dumplings.

"Hermione, can you pass the kidney pie?" Ron asked with a mouth ful of mashed potatoes. She passed the mashed potatoes to him, then turned to Christine and Harry.

"Well, what are we going to do? I mean we can't just walk up to him here and say, 'Hey professor, we know who you are tell us what you know,'" Christine said.

"You're right. But when should we talk to him?" Hermione pondered, "Should we wait 'til after our lesson tomorrow, or should we talk to him tonight?"

"I think we should talk to him tonight," Harry replied. They finished their dinner and went to Gryffindor Tower to relax until about 8:00 when they left to find Professor Twopenny.

They found him in his office grading their latest homework assignment: describing the side-effects of different memory spells.

"Christine, Hermione, what are you doing here?" Professor Twopenny asked in amazement as Harry and Ron followed behind.

"Professor, um, we need to talk to you about something kind of, well, important," Christine started off.

"Yeah, we've found out something that we think you should know about," Hermione added.

"Well, what's the trouble? You four look like you've just heard a death sentence," Professor Twopenny looked interested in what they had to say; a look that reminded Christine of Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore.

"Professor, um, we don't really know how to say this, but we know who you are," Ron said when nobody responded to the professor's last sentence.

"Oh, way to go Ron! Honestly, do you know what the phrase 'let it out gently' means?" Hermione muttered just loud enough for Ron and Christine to hear, she looked like she could strangle him.

"We figured it out professor. We just don't understand why you're here, Mr. Shackelbolt," Harry continued, noticing that now Twopenny wouldn't look them in the eye.

"You four have got to be the most intelligent group of kids I have ever known," he seemed liked he was surprised that he was figured out only a month into the school year, yet not surprised at _who_ had figured this out.

"We were hoping that you could tell us exactly why you are undercover," Harry said with a pleading tone in his voice.

"Well, I don't see why you shouldn't know what is going on, but I am not going to tell you everything, you must understand that." The kids nodded at his words and anticipated his next.

"The first and most important thing you need to remember is that nobody, except those in the order around here, can know who I really am. Not only would my cover be blown, but the Order and the ministry would be in danger. If Voldemort finds out that I'm an Auror, he will attack the ministry sooner than we expect, then everything will be destroyed."

"He's planning to invade the Ministry? Then why are you here at Hogwarts?" Christine asked.

"Well, I can't tell you what we know about the invasion, but be careful around the school. We have reason to believe that he is trying to gather his old Death Eaters within the castle walls. I'm here to discover where they're meeting, then we'll figure out what to do from there," Kingsley said this with an air of determination in his voice.

A couple of weeks had passed since Christine and her friends had discovered why Professor Twopenny was there. The season began to change, and the autumn that was once so warm, became the coldest winter Hogwarts had seen in many decades. The lessons themselves were also changing; meaning they were becoming more complex. In Charms, sixth years were learning how to do the Retrorsum Curse. The curse would show the opposite of what was really there until the counter-curse was cast. The first time Ron tried the curse on Harry, he accidentally singed Harry's hair. Christine was paired with Neville and was, well, frankly, scared out of her mind. She heard the fateful words of _"Repenitus Retrorsum!" _escape his lips and the next thing she knew she was on the floor with a huge bump on her head.

"What happened?" she asked getting up slowly from the ground and looking all around her.

"Sorry Christine. When I tried to cast the spell I think something went wrong," Neville had the most nervous look on his face. Poor Neville didn't improve much through out the rest of the day, he was yelled at by Snape threeor four times, lost his toad, and had to go to the hospital wing because when it was Christine's turn to try the Retrorsum Curse, he flinched and the curse hit his head at an odd angle causing him to lose all of his memory.

Finally, the day was over and the friends were once again sitting in front of the fire in their favorite chairs. They sat around thinking about the homework they had to finish by Monday and talked about the events of the day.

"What a boring day. I think I could have lived without the lecture on wolfsbane," Ron said in an exasperated tone.

"Ranunculaceae Interstinctus, or wolfsbane, is one of the blah blah blah blah blah!" Christine mimicked the voice of Professor Sprout and sounding almost exactly like her. "Honestly, I usually like Herbology, but this is ridiculous. If I had known that she was going to name all 317 ways of using wolfsbane, I would have stayed in the library."

"Yeah, but Potions was horrible. I can't believe that Snape took awaytwenty-five points from us just because Seamus forgot one of his ingredients. But I think that this new potion we're learning about is kind of cool," Hermione observed, "I think that it's going to be easier to make than the last one."

She was right, when Potions rolled around on Monday, they began to brew the Flagrantia. They were to complete the potion in pairs and turn it in at the end of the class. Hermione was paired with Ron, and she was nervous about allowing him to do too much on his own. Christine on the other hand was paired with Harry; he at least knew how to do most of the things.

As the class went on, a strange silence seemed to fall on the two friends; the situation was different, and it almost seemed like the two were not friends at all. There were awkward silences and neither one of them knew why. As Harry added the Phoenix ashes to the potion, Christine began to feel strange about the situation. She felt like he was more than a friend, and sometimes he would look at her and her hands would get all sweaty. Then, there was one moment when they both reached for the potion flask, and an awkward moment followed, as did an awkward smile from both of them.

"_Ok, get a hold of yourself. He's one of your best friends. He's just Harry. Nothing has changed in the last two days. Just because he's your partner all of a sudden it doesn't mean anything has to change,"_ Christine was thinking to herself as if to convince her own mind that she had no feelings for him._ " I mean, come on, he's the same tall,_ _dark and handsome...What are you thinking! He only sees you as his little sister! Just forget about him!" _

She was still thinking to herself when the class ended. She packed her things in her bag, noticed Hermione walking quickly down the hall, andtried to catch up to her. But, she never made it; Harry had called her name from the classroom door.

"Christine! Wait!" Harry stuffed the rest of his stuff in his bag and ran to meet her in the hallway.

"Hey, what's up?" Christine asked, wondering what he could need.

"Um...the Hogsmeade trip is coming up," Harry sounded really nervous, but determined to say what ever it was he was going to say.

"Yeah, I can't wait to go back. I have been craving a piece of candy from Honeydukes," Christine's eyes started to sparkle as she thought about the upcoming trip.

"Yeah, it's great. But I was wondering if I could talk to you about something when we were there? I mean, I want to show you something," he finished and waited for Christine to respond.

"Of course! I mean, sure, let's say 12:30 then, in the Three Broomsticks?" Christine answered. "_Oh way to go Christine! First you're too enthusiastic then you act like you don't care! What is wrong with you?"_

"Ok, I'll see you there," and with that Harry and Christine walked the rest of the way to Gryffindor Tower together.


	4. chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Christine lay on her bed thinking about the upcoming Hogsmeade trip. It was 4:00 in the morning and she couldn't sleep.

"_What am I doing? If this doesn't work out, we'll never be able to be friends again."_ For the first time in her life, Christine didn't know what to do. She decided to go down to the common room and read until everyone else was up. She grabbed her book, quietly made her way downstairs, and made herself comfortable in the armchair by the fire. She was not there for very long when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She didn't even bother to look up, as she was completely hypnotized by her book. Again, she heard footsteps on the stairs, but this time she heard a door open and close, then once again, silence. She turned her body with her back against the armrest and legs hanging over the other side. Her long brown hair was loosely tied in a ponytail that hung to the middle of her back, and framed her face in the firelight.

"Christine, wake up," Harry was trying to get Christine to wake up the next morning, as she had fallen asleep in the chair.

"Oh, thanks Harry," she blushed a little as she was embarrassed at falling asleep in the chair, "Um, what time is it?"

"About 7:00. You better go get dressed, breakfast is almost over," he replied taking the book away from her as she got up from the chair.

"Thanks Harry, I'll see you in class," her voice trailed off as she ran up the stairs two at a time. She raced to get ready for the day, ate breakfast so fast she finished before Neville who had been in there for 20 min, ran back to Gryffindor Tower and then down the corridor to the Transfiguration class room. She was groggy and tired throughout the whole day, but before she knew it, classes were over, andshe had to meet Hermione in the library. Shefound her sitting at a table in the corner, books everywhere and open at random.

"Hi Hermione," Christine said as she joined her at the table, and began unpacking her books.

"Tell me everything!" Hermione had a look of excitement and expectation on her face. Christine had no idea what in the world Hermione was talking about, and apparently, Hermione recognized this and added quickly, "What did Harry want to talk to you about?" It suddenly dawned on her, she hadn't told Hermione about what Harry had asked her.

"Um, yeah, about that," she started, then paused, shedidn't know what to say after that. After a moment of thought, she said as casually as if they were talking about the weather, "He just wanted to know if I would go to Hogsmeade with him." Christine looked up to see Hermione's reaction, but by the look on her face, she couldn't tell if she was extremely happy or extremely angry.

"Oh my gosh!" apparently, she was thrilled as a smile spread across her face. Hermione couldn't control herself, she seemed to be more excited than Christine.

"Hermione! Calm down!" Christine shouted to her andhad to almost wrestle her back into her seat. "I'll tell you when we get back to the comm–" but she was cut off in mid sentence as Hermione had packed everything up at record speed, and was dragging Christine out of the library. When they reached the common room, Christine's wrists were red, but that didn't bother Hermione. She grabbed Christine's wrist again and pulled her next to the fire where they wouldn't be overheard.

"Now tell me!"

"It's not that big of a deal. I've gone to Hogsmeade with him before."

"But not like this, Ron and I have always been there too," Hermione was making Christine nervous about the whole idea, and she didn't like it.

"Hermione, we've been alone before, I mean when you and Ron fight, we usually leave you two alone," Christine admitted, knowing that Hermione had never noticed their absence.

"Christine, how long have you really like Harry?" Hermione was now coming to the point she was trying to make.

"Since the third year, you know that," Christine answered now starting to piece the riddle together.

"Sine third year. Then why when he finally asks you out, are you not as excited as you should be?" Hermione's famous I'm-right-and-you're-wrong smile appeared on her face.

"But I'm nervous about something," Christine walked up to her dormitory, with Hermione close on her heels.

"What are you nervous about? You just said that you had no problem hanging out with him by yourself?" Hermione shut the door to their room and went to sit on the bed, Christine was standing by the window watching the breeze softly rustle the trees.

"I'm not nervous to be alone with him. It's the way he sounded and looked when he asked me out," Christine turned back to look at Hermione, "He said he wants to show me something."

"Do you have any idea what it might be?" Hermione had finally calmed down and was no longer as excited about the Hogsmeade trip as she was earlier.

"No. But until I find out, I'm not going to get too excited about this."

The next few days passed by uneventfully. Lessons seemed to fly by as they had so much work to do, and then were assigned mountains of homework. In the evenings, the boys went to Quidditch practice, leaving Christine and Hermione to chat with each other. As they were both muggle-born, they would talk about their families and kept up on muggle news.

Friday night rolled around, the day before the Hogsmeade trip. Christine, Hermione and Ginny were in Christine and Hermione's dormitory waiting for the boys. Ginny was actually waiting for Seamus, who usually went to watch the practices and came back with the rest of the team. However, while she waited she looked through a few of the magazines that Christine had with her from the muggle world.

"Christine, how do muggles live without magic?" Ginny asked as she looked though one of the magazines. Christine, who was frantically searching for something to wear the next day, turned away from the mirror and smiled at her.

"Ginny, muggles are smarted than you give them credit for. Their lives are actually quite comfortable," she continued turning back to the mirror and holding up a shirt to see how it would look.

"But they have nothing to challenge them like we do. They can't even entertain themselves without trying to use magic, like those magicians," Ginny looked at the magazine again and saw an add for a Magicians Kit that promised you could learn to read minds.

"Ginny, you'd be surprised what they come up with."

"Ok, what did you used to do before you learned magic?" Ginny asked in a prove-it-to-me-now type of tone.

"Have you ever been to see a movie or a play?" Christine waited for Ginny to look up at her and when she did, she saw that Ginny had no idea what those things were. "Well have you ever been to a zoo? No? Muggles go to the zoo and theaters and enjoy learning about different things," Christine professed to her bored looking friend, who was now looking at a Playbill from _Phantom of the Opera._

"What's this?" she indicated holding up the Playbill.

"That is like a program, it tells you who's going to be playing who in a play," at this Ginny seemed to take an interest in the play.

"Oh, what does that mean?"

"Ginny, I'm sorry, I forgot," Christine and Hermione both chuckled to themselves, "A play is like a bunch of muggles acting out a story. _The Phantom of the Opera_, is one of the best out there."

"She's right Ginny, one summer, you should come into London with us and we'll show you what we mean," Hermione added.

"Sounds like fun. Well, I have to go meet Seamus, I can hear Angelina coming up the stairs. See you later," finished Ginny as she walked out the door.

"Bye!" Christine and Hermione shouted back at the same time.

"Well, should we go down and meet the boys then?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I'll meet you down there, I just want to finish putting my clothes away." Hermione nodded her head and made her way down the staircase. Christine sat on her bed and looked around her. She began to think of all the pressure she was putting on herself; trying to find the perfect outfit, practicing the perfect way to start a conversation. She sighed, and began to put her clothes back in her dresser.

"_What am I doing? This is my best friend, and all he wants to do is show me something tomorrow. Why am I making a big deal out of this? Because Hermione scared the living day lights out of me that's why! Well, nothing has changed yet, so I'm just going to hang out with my best friend._" Christine thought to herself as she finished putting her clothes away. A few minutes later, she was sitting with her friends, listening to their jokes, and their complaints about the Slytherins. One by one the group slowly thinned out as the time crept by. Soon Christine found herself reading her book in her favorite armchair legs over one armrest and back to the other. Finally, around midnight, she decided to go up to bed and felt herself drift into dreams as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The students woke up the next morning to that a fresh blanket of soft snow had once again come to the grounds of Hogwarts. Christine couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to go to Hogwarts. She loved the winter, she loved that cozy feeling she got when she could curl up on a comfy couch or chair. She got up dressed quickly, and went down to the Great Hall to have breakfast.

"Morning Hermione, Ron," she said cheerfully as she sat down next to Ron and across from Hermione at the table.

"Morning," Ron replied absent mindedly.

"Hey, did you see the paper this morning? It seems that some information has leaked from the ministry and it seems that the _Dailey Prophet _has gotten wind of it," Hermione stated with a look of alarm on her face.

"Really? What is it?" Christine inquired as she buttered herself a piece of toast.

"They seem to think that there is an Auror in Hogwarts," she continued as both Christine and Ron looked up at her.

"No, they couldn't know. I mean," Christine looked around to make sure nobody was paying attention to them, "They wouldn't print something like that for death eaters to know would they?" Christine whispered.

"Let me see that," Ron muttered as he took the paper from Hermione.

"Well, I don't think you have anything to worry about Christine," Ron said as he quickly glanced at the paper and set it down again.

"What do you mean? They know about _Professor Twopenny_?" Christine questioned and she put an extra emphasis on Professor Twopenny.

"Well not exactly. They never actually say who it is or what they are disguised as here, plus the article is written by Rita Skeeter. Nobody is going to take that woman seriously," Ron continued as if it was an everyday observation. However, Christine and Hermione were staring at Ron with open mouths, they couldn't believe what they were hearing.

"What?" Ron looked at the girls defensively. The girls just looked at each other in amazement and smiled before turning back to their breakfasts. They finished breakfast, went back to the dormitories, where Christine decided on a pair of jeans and a black long sleeve shirt that hung slightly off the shoulders, and met Harry in the corridor outside the Great Hall.

"Hey ready to go?" Harry asked Christine as she walked up with Ron and Hermione.

"Yeah, um, we'll see you later then," Christine stated tuning back to Hermione.

Harry and Christine walked in silence all the way down to Hogsmeade. Christine was gazing around the trees in the forrest, occasionally noticing Harry looking nervous. She smiled to herself, but never said a word.

"So, what do you want to do first?" wondered Harry, catching Christine completely off guard and startling her.

"Oh! Uh, what?" Christine responded slightly out of breath.

"Sorry," Harry choked as he cleared his throat and giving her a weak smile, "What do you want to do first?"

"Oh, um, I don't know, how about we go to, " she hadn't quite made up her mind, but she saw his eyes wander over to the Quidditch shop, "the Quidditch shop, perhaps?" Harry seemed to come back to where he was, and again looked embarrassed.

"Uh, sure," he replied rather absent mindedly, and they walked into the shop. Christine liked Quidditch, so she didn't really mind that they were there. She always liked to keep up on latest news, even though she didn't have a favorite team. She had heard Ron and Harry talking about how they were holding tryouts for a new chaser since Katie Bell had graduated last year, and was thinking about trying out. She wasn't as good as Katie, but she was okay. She looked over at Harry who was waiting for her by the door with a bag in his hand and thought he had probably bought himself a new broom cleaning kit.

"Ready?" she grinned as she joined him by the door.

"Yeah, I was thinking, I think we should go get something to drink at the Three Broomsticks. What do you think?" he continued as they heard the jingle of the bells from the closing door.

"I think I would like that," she replied as they turned the corner to in the direction of the Three Broomsticks. The rest of the afternoon went by pretty fast. Christine had a great time with Harry, but still had a strange feeling about what he was going to show her. However, they made their way out of town and down towards the Shrieking Shack. Christine was watching as Harry let go of one of the Wizard Wheezes he got from George over summer. When it finally flew into the forrest, Christine sat on the tree trunk that was in front of the fence. Harry leaned on the tree a few feet behind her and stared out at the "haunted" building.

"Are you ready for the surprise?" Harry asked as he walked up to where she was sitting.

"I guess so," Christine answered, hesitating slightly.

"Let's go then."

They walked through the forrest a little ways before coming to a cave.

"Harry, I don't think we should go in there," Christine muttered to his back.

"Do you trust me?" he replied.

"What? Of course I trust you," she answered.

"Then follow me, and don't worry," he reassured her.

She followed him through chambers of the cave that were as big as the Great Hall and others as small as Hagrid's hut. They climbed over boulders into rooms with underground springs, then into rooms that had no light whatsoever, except from the tip of Harry's wand. In one of these dark rooms, Christine heard something, and it sent chills up her spine.

"Harry, I think we should go back, now. I don't like this," Christine mumbled.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked noticing the fear in her voice, but not keeping the excitement out of his own.

"No, I guess I really don't want to leave," Christine admitted and hoped that they would be able to get back to the town soon.

"Okay then, it's just over this rock."

Christine was right on his heels as he hoisted himself up over the rock and turned back to help Christine. When she reached the top, she was greeted with the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. The cave had suddenly opened up into a beautiful clearing, that looked like it led back into the Forbidden Forrest. There was a waterfall off to the right, and emptied into a stream that ran all the way around the clearing and into the surrounding forrest. She thought it was strange that the green grass wasn't covered in a thick layer of snow and that the water didn't seem to be freezing.

"Do you like it?" Harry asked encouragingly.

"I...I..." a speechless Christine stammered, "Do I like it?" She walked down and examined the clearing in a trance-like daze.

"I love it," Christine gasped, turning back to face Harry, "How did you find it?"

"The Marauder's Map," he grinned, "I had to find the perfect place."

"For what?" Christine choked, holding back tears and gazing up at the waterfall again. Harry hesitated for a moment, as if trying to find the best way to phrase it.

"To ask you out, a-as my girlfriend," Harry stuttered. Christine again turned to face him, but was rooted to the spot, she couldn't think of anything to say. Embarrassed by her staring, she turned back around and tried to think of what to say.

"Christine," Harry said in a more loving tone and taking another step towards her, "Will you be my girlfriend?" She turned back to him with all the courage she had left, and looked straight into his bright, emerald green eyes.

"Yes," she gulped as a smile of relief came over his face. He hugged her, and she threw her arms around his neck; she couldn't believe that after waiting three years, he had finally asked her out. But their moment of happiness was temporarily interrupted as Harry noticed it was getting late.

"Hey, we better be getting back. It'll be dark soon," Harry sighed, not wanting to let her go.

"Yeah, let's go," she agreed. They again found themselves engulfed in darkness as they made their way back to Hogsmeade. When they arrived back in town, they met Ron and Hermione and returned to the castle. Hermione of course, noticed the shy smile on Christine's face and couldn't wait to find out what had happened.

The friends took their normal seats around the fire in the Gryffindor common room. But this time, Harry settled into the corner of the couch, and Christine sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. There was little conversation as Ron had already gone to bed, and all Hermione wanted to talk about was Christine and Harry, but didn't want to talk to Harry. They watched the flames dance gracefully across the logs in the fire with an occasional _crack,_ and listened to the wind howl through the top of the chimney.

"Well, I'd hate to leave this party," Harry said sarcastically, "But I'm off to bed. Night." He gently kissed Christine on the cheek and walked up the stairs and out of sight. Hermione, with the mentality of out of sight, out of hearing range, looked over eagerly at Christine, expecting to be informed of everything at that moment. However, Christine had simply picked up her book and taken her favorite position in the armchair and was back reading her book.

"Well, Christine? Don't you have something to tell me?" Hermione blurted out in an exasperated tone.

"Hermione, I'm sure I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about," Christine said casually not looking up from her book.

"What!" Hermione looked as if the floor had been dropped from under her.

"Relax, Hermione," Christine reassured her, "I was only joking. What do you want me to tell you?"

"What happened after you left the Shrieking Shack?" Hermione squealed, noticing the look on Christine's face, "Sorry, I followed you, I wanted to see what happened down there."

"Well, he took me to a cave in the forrest surrounding Hogsmeade. Inside the cave were the most beautiful, yet strange chambers that led to this clearing," Christine stopped and was hypnotized by the image of the clearing in her mind. "In the clearing was the most beautiful flowing waterfall, that emptied into a sparkling stream. And the stream was winding around the greenest meadow I have ever seen, and scattered in the meadow were huge, ancient oak trees.

"Wait, there was no snow or ice? How is that possible?" Hermione interrupted.

"I don't know, it was as if the little clearing was untouched by anything outside of it. But when I asked Harry how he had found it, he said he had to find the perfect place to ask me out," Christine finished, her eyes slightly glazed over as she re-lived the day in her mind.

"Wow," Hermione gasped, "So now you're going out with Harry. Are you still nervous?" Hermione teased, making Christine snap out of her trance and smile. Hermione smiled back and the girls got up and went up the stairs to bed. Soon, Christine found herself at ease with everything around her, and falling asleep dreaming of Harry, and the clearing, not knowing that the next day would lead her into another daring adventure with her friends.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

The next morning was the coldest morning of Christine's life. The windows were covered in frost, and the walls of the castle seemed to keep the cold locked inside. When Christine woke up, she dressed quickly, and met Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the common room before heading down to breakfast.

"Morning," she smiled to Hermione and Ron as she walked up and gently kissed Harry on the cheek.

"Hey," Hermione replied acting as though Christine and Harry had done this every morning, Ron on the other hand was silent, he couldn't believe what he had just seen.

"What's going on?" Ron whispered to Hermione out of the corner of his mouth and smiling at Christine.

"I'll tell you later," Hermione muttered in response. The group of friends walked down the spiraling staircases and into the Great Hall, which was half full with students, and took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

"What should we do today guys?" Harry asked, shoveling a eggs and bacon onto his plate.

"Why don't we go for a walk down to the lake?" Christine suggested, while buttering herself a piece of toast.

"Um, no thanks," Hermione answered, "I have to finish some stuff. Ron's coming with me," she added quickly, before Ron could say any thing.

"Okay, if you're sure," Christine said, and that was the end of that idea. The mail arrived and soon Christine was chatting away with Hermione, while the boys were engulfed in Quidditch. After breakfast, Hermione and Ron headed off to do what ever it was they had to do. Christine and Harry however, started to walk down to the lake hand in hand.

"Sure has been cold lately," Christine stated with a shiver.

"Here," Harry said handing her his sweatshirt, "We can go back if you want."

"No, I like it when it's cold," she continued as they stopped at the water's edge. There was silence again and Christine sat down in the cold snow, Harry following her example.

"Quidditch tryouts next week," Harry blurted out trying to start a conversation.

"Yeah, I know. Who do you think will go out for the team?" Christine sighed.

"I really don't know," Harry replied, "but when the season starts you will come to watch every match, won't you?"

"Hopefully not," she muttered under her breath so he couldn't hear her.

"What?" Harry asked, trying to make out her words.

"Of course I will," she replied, thinking of how surprised he would be if he found out what she was up to. They sat out there for about half an hour before getting so cold that they had to go inside. They walked back up to the common room and sat down to play a game of Wizard's chess.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked Christine who had just started to shiver and was walking over to get a blanket.

"I-It's s-so c-cold," she stammered, wrapping the blanket tightly around her body.

"Why don't we move..." Harry's voice trailed off as he looked at the mantel above the fireplace. There, sitting in the vase, were two roses that had been a deep blood red, and now they were almost white, with a faint trace of pink around the middle. They were forming ice crystals on their once soft petals, and were now shrinking where they had once been full.

"What happened?" Christine said only loud enough for Harry to hear, "The last time I saw something like that happen –"

"Dementors were circling the school," Harry finished, "But why am I not feeling all the happiness drain out of me?"

"I think we need to talk to Professor Twopenny," Christine said as she headed for the portrait hole.

"Good idea, let's go," Harry agreed as he followed through the portrait and down the corridor. They walked down the the chilled corridor to the professor's office and knocked on the door. No answer. Harry looked back at Christine with a puzzled look on his face and tried again. Still, no answer.

"That's strange. He's usually in there," Harry said knocking again. As he was about to knock for the fourth time, Professor McGonagall walked by.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Davet, may I help you with something?" she asked her students raising an eyebrow.

"Um, yeah. Could you tell us where we might find Professor Twopenny? We had a question to ask him," Christine said quickly trying not to look too anxious.

"I'm sorry, but Professor Twopenny has been temporarily called away from Hogwarts on a matter of personal importance. Maybe I can be of service?" Professor McGonagall suggested.

"Um this was just a technical question on one of the assignments, thanks anyway Professor," she answered, while slipping her arm through Harry's.

"Well, then I will be on my way, as should you two," McGonagall replied, walking past her two students. Christine and Harry headed in the opposite direction, back towards the common room.

"Why didn't you just tell her that we know about Twopenny?" Harry asked when he was sure they couldn't be over heard.

"I don't know," Christine said in a panic, moving away from Harry and beginning to pace. "I didn't think we should tell her yet, something's going on, come on we need to tell the others." Harry nodded in agreement, took her hand and began walking back towards the common room in silence. When they arrived, they found Ron and Hermione sitting around the fireplace, talking with Ginny, Lavender, Parvati, Seamus and Dean.

"Great, now what are we going to do?" Harry asked Christine, only loud enough for her to hear.

"Just play along," she replied, smiling at the group before standing behind the old couch.

"Um, Hermione can I talk to you for a moment?" Christine requested, not giving Hermione time to respond before grabbing her arm and leading her up the staircase that led to the dormitories. When Harry began to follow the girls, Christine elbowed him in the stomach gently and nodded her head to Ron. Harry finally realizing what he was supposed to do, walked back to the group and smiled.

"Ron, can I talk to you?" Harry recited. Ron gave didn't know what was going on, but shrugged and followed Harry up the stairs.

"What was that all about?" Hermione demanded as Harry and Ron met the girls at the top of the stairs.

"Something's not right," Christine led off, "Professor Twopenny is gone." Hermione didn't say anything, but she opened her mouth in amazement and looked at Harry, as if he was going to confirm it. Ron's eyebrows were immediately raised, and he wasn't sure if he had heard Christine right.

"And that's not the worst of it," Harry continued, "Do you remember when the dementors were here looking for Sirius?"

"Yeah, 'course we do," Ron answered, not sure what that had to do with anything now.

"We think they are around here somewhere, and the ministry doesn't know about it," Christine continued.

"What makes you think that?" Hermione sputtered.

"Look at this," Christine indicated as she walked halfway down the stairs, just so they could see the top of the fireplace. "See the flowers? They were blood red earlier when Harry and I were playing chess, now they are almost white."

"Icicles are forming on the petals too," Harry continued, "And the last time that happened was when the dementors were here."

"Oh no! It can't be!" Ron said, suddenly going white.

"Oh get over it Ron, this only means that we have to tell Dumbledore what we've seen," Hermione stated firmly and calmly. Apparently the initial shock of Harry and Christine had worn off and now Hermione was no longer over enthusiastic about anything.

"Then it's settled, we'll go and tell Dumbledore everything, even about Twopenny," Harry added just before Ron could open his mouth to argue.

The next day the four of them seemed to be a little uneasy during classes. Christine kept thinking of possible ways they could tell Dumbledore what they had discovered and decided it was a job for Hermione. The end of their last class, Transfiguration, came and went. After class, the four of them stayed behind to ask Professor McGonagall if they could talk to Professor Dumbledore.

"Why do you need to talk to the headmaster?" Professor McGonagall asked as if there was something extremely wrong with students talking to him.

"We have something very important to tell him about Professor Twopenny," Ron blurted out; tact was obviously not a word in his vocabulary.

"Well there goes that secret," Hermione muttered to Christine under her breath. Christine had to fake a cough in order to hide her giggling.

"What on earth are you talking about Mr. Weasley?" McGonagall asked suspiciously.

"You might as well tell her now Ronald," Hermione snapped throwing her arms up in aggravation.

"Fine! I will!" Ron answered back, a hint of venom in his tone, "Professor we know _who_ Professor Twopenny really is. We have some information to tell Professor Dumbledore, it's very urgent."

"Follow me," Professor McGonagall commanded as she got up and left the room. The students had to almost had to break into a sprint in order to keep up with her, as they made their way to the headmaster's office. When they got there, McGonagall murmured the password, and the statue began to spiral up to the office. They arrived in the office and found the headmaster looking over some papers.

"Ah, Professor McGonagall, what can I help you with?" Dumbledore inquired in his very polite accent.

"Professor, Potter and his friends have something to tell you," she replied.

"I see, well then what can I help _you _with?" Professor Dumbledore repeated as he turned his attention to his students. When they were silent for a moment, Hermione answered him.

"Professor, we found out that Professor Twopenny is Kingsley Shackelbolt and that he is working for the order under cover."

"Clearly Ron isn't the only one who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut," Harry whispered in Christine's ear. She gave him a disapproving look and he knew that this wasn't anything to laugh about.

"I see," Dumbledore said standing up and walking in front of his desk. "Well once again, it seems that I have underestimated the intelligence of these two witches and these two wizards," Dumbledore chuckled to the portraits of the previous headmasters and headmistresses in his office. "However, I am sorry that I cannot tell you anymore than you already know." He was very firm, and though his eyes were still bright and shining, his tone of voice was firm and determined. It was clear that he would not be persuaded to give any information, so a disappointed Christine, left the office with her friends right behind her. They knew that Dumbledore had his reasons for keeping the 'secret' from them, but they were still bothered that they didn't know what was going on.

A few days passed without anything interesting happening. Neville had been yelled at a few times, Snape had taken points away from every house except Slytherin, and they had been assigned loads of homework. The only thing that some Gryffindors had to look forward to, was Quidditch tryouts. Christine had decided that after all, she was going to try out for the chaser position, but she didn't want to tell anyone until the day of tryouts. So after dinner on Thursday night, Christine slipped up to her room, changed her robes, and quickly made her way out of the castle and down to the pitch.

She had never seen the pitch so still. The stands were empty and silent and reminded her of the sad feeling she got after a big party was over and everyone had gone home. The pitch itself seemed to be even more desolate than the stands without all the players zooming around in the air, even though there were about twenty people gathered in the center of the field. The whole team was there, waiting for tryouts to begin as well, as they were to help evaluate each 'rookie.' When Christine got her number, seven, she flew to the line that was forming in the sky and hovered over the ground waiting for Alayna Brayden, the Gryffindor captain.

Alayna was from a family of pureblood witches and wizards, but they were a lot like the Weasley family. She was tall and slender, with short blonde hair, that was currently pulled back into a pony tail with a ribbon. She had a pretty face, with small sapphire blue eyes that seemed like they could look right through you. If you didn't know her, you would think that she was one of the most stuck up girls you could ever meet, but she was in fact one of the sweetest girls you could ever meet.

"Okay! Listen up!" Alayna barked out as she joined the group. "We are going to be evaluating you in agility, arm strength, accuracy and passing abilities. Don't be nervous, just show us what you can do. Now, you've been divided into four groups of five and each group has been assigned a number. Group one will go to station one and so on. My teammates and I will be scattered around at each station watching you." And with that, everybody dispersed and took their places at each station.

Christine flew over to station number four, and was met by the Gryffindor beaters, Brent and Eric Quinlan. The first drill was to test her accuracy; she did reasonably well on it, but thought that she could do better. That's how she felt when she left the next three drills. She had finished the last drill and was waiting for Alayna , but re-capped on the way her tryout went. She thought it went well, but as always, thought of all her mistakes more than her achievements. Finally, Alayna called them all together as the rest of the Gryffindor team joined her. Harry had watched Christine through the whole thing, but never looked him in the face. In fact, she had tried to avoid him as much as possible.

"Thank you all for trying out tonight. We have made our decision and will be in contact with all of you by the end of the night," Alayna shouted with a smile.

Christine landed back on the ground seconds later, deciding she would like to walk, rather than fly, back to the castle. She was closely followed by Harry and his shouts.

"Hey! Christine, wait up!" he yelled, racing to catch up with her. Christine stopped, turned to face him and and smiled.

"Hi," she said sweetly and kissed him on the cheek.

"Oh, so you're talking to me now," Harry stated with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

"Why wouldn't I?" Christine giggled to herself as she knew what was coming.

"I don't know! That's the whole problem!" Harry barked back at her. She knew he was angry about her not talking to him, but couldn't help laughing at him. "I'm glad this is so amusing to you. Would you mind letting me in on the joke?" he was trying to keep himself calm through the conversation.

"Harry, I'm not mad at you," she smiled taking his hand in hers, as they began walking back towards the castle. "I just didn't want you to influence the team, so that I would make the team. I wanted to make the team on my own, without any, help."

"So you're not mad at me?" Harry asked hesitantly. Christine stopped and looked him in the eyes.

"No, I'm not mad at you, I never was," she replied. A smile of relief came over Harry's face as she started back towards the castle.

That night, Christine and Harry sat at a table in the Gryffindor common room finishing their charms homework, when Alayna walked up and sat down with them.

"Hi," she began cheerfully as she sat down across from Christine.

"Hey," Christine replied while finishing the paragraph of her essay and not looking up at Alayna .

"Harry, did you tell her yet?" Alayna muttered while she waited for Christine's attention.

"No," he whispered back, as Christine finally looked up and smiled at Alayna . A moment or two passed without any words from anyone. Christine looked at Alayna expectantly, and was about to go back to her essay when Alayna spoke up.

"Christine, about the tryouts today. Um, I wanted to tell you that you did a great job –" she was suddenly cut off by laughter from a group of first and second years at a nearby table. "Like I was saying, you did a great job at tryouts today, and I just wanted to tell you that we are very excited to have you on the team."

"I made it! Oh my lord! I can't believe this!" Christine squealed as she hugged Harry.

"Practices are from six o'clock to eight thirty on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I can't wait to see you Tuesday," Alayna reported with a smile. "Oh yeah, and just a heads up, our first match of the year is in two weeks, October 30," Alayna finished. Christine had totally forgotten that it was only October; she had been referring the season as winter as it was so cold outside. She was brought back to her senses when Alayna began to say, "And guess who we play?"

"Don't say it. Please!" Christine already knew the answer just by the way Alayna asked the question; they were playing Slytherin. "My first Quidditch match has to be against them," she stated in a disappointed tone.

"Look on the bright side, at least you will be able to kick their butts without getting in trouble," Harry joked. Christine laughed at Harry's joke, before gathering her stuff and getting up from the table.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she giggled. She kissed Harry goodnight, said goodbye to Alayna and went up to bed.

The next two weeks went by faster than anyone could have expected, especially for Christine. Classes weren't at all that tough and there wasn't that much homework assigned, but when you added it to the Quidditch practices at night, it gets to be a lot. She was so exhausted by the end of the day, that she only had enough energy to sit in the armchair next to the fire.

"Hey how are you feeling?" Harry asked as he sat on the couch closest to her.

"Tired," she replied with a yawn.

"Are you sure you're not nervous?"

"No, not really, I just hope that I will be able to stay awake throughout the entire thing."

"Well, that's good. I remember my first Quidditch match. It went smoothly, you'll be fine," he smiled at her.

"Thanks Harry, but I'm going to go up to bed. Night," she said sweetly as he walked her to the staircase and kissed her.

"Night."

**Thanks guys for the fourteen of you who reviewed...lol...well sry this one took so long to get up, but here it is...**

**Angelbmo: thanks brenn...ur my new beta...and always make sure that im consistent with my story...cant wait til ur back!**

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**jmalfoy: thanks for all the encouragement on my writing! hope u review again**

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**belle amia**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

**A/N: ok guys! here it is to my faithful readers...jus so u kno i did finish harry potter and the half blood prince and was bawlin my eyes out! definitely worth waiting for! hope u like this and dont forget to review! thanks so much!**

**DISCLAIMER: ok i kno this is the first time i put one up but, i only own the plot and Christine Davet, the harry potter characters and setting belong to jkr and the mention of phantom of the opera that belongs to andrew lloyd webber.**

That night, Christine had the weirdest dream about the upcoming match. Of course, after it woke her up in the middle of the night, she couldn't remember any of the details, but it was definitely strange. She couldn't go back to sleep, so she went down to her favorite armchair, took her favorite position in it and began to read her book. She read on into the night until she heard someone come downstairs.

"Good morning," said a familiar voice as the person wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the cheek.

"Good morning," she yawned, swinging her legs to the floor and turning around to hug him.

"How long have you been up?" Harry asked. "You should've been sleeping,"

"I don't really know, but wait for me and we'll go down to breakfast," she answered while hurrying up to her dormitory. She entered the room quietly, trying to wake up her roommates. She changed her clothes and picked out a pair a dark blue jeans, a black shirt and a pair of black ugg boots.

She met Harry downstairs a few minutes later and they made their way to the Great Hall, even though she wasn't hungry. She reasoned to herself that if she ate something she would feel better about her match later. How wrong she was. When she and Harry had entered the Great Hall, she knew she was not going to eat anything. The smell of food made her stomach queasy and she had to breath out of her mouth in order to keep from being sick. She decided that she would sit with Harry while he ate, but at this sight, she decided to go back to the common room. However, on her way there, she bumped into Ron and Hermione in the corridor.

"Hey, you don't look so good," Ron began, losing the cheerfulness in his voice as he spoke.

"Yeah well, if you just watched Harry eat breakfast and you didn't feel good, you wouldn't look so good either," Christine joked weakly. "I really don't know what's wrong with me though, maybe I'm nervous."

"What for? You've played Quidditch for the past two weeks, and are doing quite well according to Alayna ," Hermione said, trying to make her friend feel better.

"Yeah but in practice, Brent and Eric don't actually try to hurt the chasers," Christine replied, while glancing at Crabbe and Goyle, the Slytherin beaters.

"Good point," Ron blurted out, not realizing the worried look on Christine's face.

"Ron!" Hermione hissed, "Don't say stuff like that! Now she's only going to think about how they could actually hurt her –"

"Guys! Hello? Um, yeah, in case you were trying to make me feel better, it's not working," Christine gulped as she again glanced through the doors of the Great Hall at Crabbe and Goyle. They were now cracking walnuts without even flexing.

"I'm going for a walk, by myself, if you don't mind," she added quickly as both Hermione and Ron opened their mouths to argue. She walked in the direction of the lake, deciding that it would be the ideal place to stay out of eyesight. As she left, she could hear Hermione scolding Ron for what he said.

"Way to go Ron! Another fine example of your discreet tactics!" Hermione was saying with a hint of venom in her voice.

Christine soon found herself walking by the water's edge. She sat down in the cold snow, where she had first heard Harry talk about tryouts. She began to remember how he had looked so furious when she didn't talk with him at tryouts and how he thought she was mad at him. She smiled to herself and sat there for about an hour, when suddenly someone walked up behind her.

"Fancy meeting you here Mudblood," said the all too familiar drawl of Draco Malfoy. She had completely forgotten about him, even though he was in all of her classes. But when she remembered how they had escaped from and embarrassed his father and his fellow Death Eaters, she figured he was too embarrassed to start anything with them. She turned around to face him, and found that, as usual, Crabbe and Goyle were with him.

"Malfoy, I have nothing to say to you and you clearly have nothing to say to me. So, I think you and your body guards should leave me alone. I really don't feel like embarrassing you here," Christine sighed as she walked past them.

"You filthy little Mudblood," Malfoy spat back, putting an extra emphasis on the last word. Christine stopped, let out another long sigh, and turned around to face them.

"If you are quiet finished with your name calling, I would like to leave. I have to get dressed so I can beat you at Quidditch now," Christine stated as quite a matter-of-factly. She actually sounded just like Hermione, and scared herself.

"You expect to beat me?" Malfoy questioned as he pulled out his wand as a threat. "Well, you won't be making that match," he snarled. He started to mutter a spell, but Christine was faster. She had hit Malfoy with a stunning charm, and as Crabbe and Goyle were too stupid to think of their own wands, she turned on her heel and walked down to the pitch.

She had not realized it was already time for her to meet the team in the locker rooms until Malfoy showed up. She dressed in silence and tried to relax a bit. Alayna began her pre-game talk, which Christine barely listened to, and soon the team was lining up and waiting to walk onto the field. Harry gave her a kiss for good luck as the team filed onto the field, then took his position in the air. Madame Hooch mounted her broom, released the four balls, and the game began.

Christine didn't know what happened when she heard the whistle blow, but she seemed to leave herself. It was like her body was doing everything that she did in practice, without her mind telling her what to do. She zoomed in and out of players and before she knew it, Alayna had scored the first goal and they were back in starting positions. Soon, Christine relaxed and settled into her position. The Gryffindor chasers seemed to work well together as they dodged bludgers and players alike.

Finally, when Gryffindor scored and took the lead eighty to sixty, Christine was having fun again. She didn't even notice the smirk on Malfoy's face as the game began again. Alayna was the first to the Quaffle and began calling out plays. As the chasers worked the ball up field, a Slytherin chaser knocked the Quaffle out of Katie Bell's hand and the ball flew towards the the wall of one of the stands. Christine took off, and raced towards the ball, her back towards the field. As she stretched for the ball, she didn't see Crabbe hit a bludger her way and was hit in the back of the head. The bludger knocked her out, and because she was so close to the wall, she crashed into it and fell to the ground. Her head had taken the blunt of the force from the wall and was split open in the back from the impact of the bludger. She was sprawled out on the ground, not moving as staff members and teammates rushed to help her. Harry, pushed his way through the crowd, only to be pushed back out of the way as Professor McGonagall took Christine to the Hospital Wing.

A few days later, Christine woke up in the hospital wing. Harry was asleep in a chair at the foot of her bed. Christine barely moved to sit up in the bed, when Harry suddenly jerked awake. He rubbed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair before realizing Christine was looking at him.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" he smiled as he got up and kissed her on the forehead.

"Like my head has been trampled on," she joked playfully.

"Well, you took quite a beating," Harry explained as he sat down again.

"How long have I been out?" Christine inquired, hoping that she hadn't missed any classes.

"It's Tuesday morning, I have to get to class, but Madame Pomfrey wants to keep you here a little longer to make sure, you're all right," Harry added quickly and firmly as Christine made to get out of bed. "Don't worry about your work, Hermione will more than likely have it for you when you get back. But I'll be back at lunch and at the end of the day," he continued.

"Okay, bye," Christine said, "Oh Harry! You finished the game right?" When Harry nodded she said, "Well, who won?"

"We did," he smiled modestly as he walked out of the Hospital Wing. Christine smiled back at him and settled back into her warm bed and fell asleep. At lunch, Harry came back up to the Hospital Wing with Ron and Hermione. They talked about lessons from the morning, Quidditch and the look on Malfoy's face after he lost _again_, and laughed at stupid jokes. When it was time for them to return to their classes, Hermione and Ron gave Christine a hug and said their goodbyes. Harry told them he'd see them in class and watched them leave.

"I'll see you after class," he said, giving her a weak smile and a kiss on the cheek.

"Bye Harry." After he left, Madame Pomfrey walked in with a bottle in her hands.

"Miss Davet, how do you feel," she asked, as she set down the bottle and felt her patients forehead.

"Good," Christine replied with a smile.

"No pains or aches anywhere?" Madame Pomfrey inquired further.

"Well, unless you count the constant headache, which feels like a bunch of trolls tromping around in there, no I'm fine."

"Well, that's only expected. But I think after you finish this potion, you can go to your common room and rest there," she smiled, as she handed Christine the cup with a light blue mixture in it.

"Thank you," Christine choked as she finished the medicine, "Um, Madame Pomfrey, if anyone comes looking for me later, will you tell them where I am?"

"Of course dear." Christine smiled at the healer of Hogwarts and made her way through the empty corridors to the Gryffindor common room. It was empty, as she expected, but it still felt strange not to be hearing all the laughter and jokes she usually heard. Noticing she was still in her Quidditch robes, Christine decided to take a shower and change. She dried herself quickly and dressed in blue jeans and a tan, v-neck shirt. She let her wet hair hang down her back, and sprayed a little gel in it and left it alone. As it dried, her hair began to naturally curl slightly, and framed her face. She walked back down to the common room, muttered a charm to light the fireplace, and made herself comfortable on the couch to write letters to her family.

Just as she finished signing her name on the last letter, she heard voices approaching from the direction of the portrait hole. She hurried up the staircase to put her things away and rushed out the door to meet whoever came in to the common room. Unfortunately, whoever had come through the portrait had already made their way up the stairs and to the door of the dormitories. Christine had rammed into her in her excitement to be around people.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," Christine cried as she helped her victim up off the floor.

"It's all right," groaned Hermione as she sat on the floor rubbing her shoulder that had taken most of the hit. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be in here," she joked as Christine helped her up off the floor. "Why are you so hyper?"

"I've been cooped up in here and haven't talked to anyone since lunch. I guess I got a bit excited when I heard someone come into the common room." Christine answered, blushing slightly. The girls walked back into the room they shared with Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil and another girl named Melanie Fontaine. Hermione could only laugh at her friend as she put her things down.

"Oh, Harry went to get you in the Hospital Wing so you might as well wait for him downstairs, he should be here soon," Hermione remembered.

"Are you coming?" Christine inquired before rising from her bed and walking towards the door.

"Yeah, hold on." Hermione quickly changed her clothes, while Christine waited for her by the door.

When Christine and Hermione entered the common room, they were surprised to see how quickly it had filled up with their house mates. But this thought was soon pushed from their minds, as a crowd seemed to form around them faster than a snitch around a Quidditch pitch. She was bombarded with different questions, and as she tried to answer all of the questions, she seemed to slur her words and made some faces at the questions being asked. In fact, she didn't remember half of the questions having any truth behind them. She was about to scream when Alayna Brayden appeared on the scene.

"Okay, okay, leave her alone!" she shouted over the crowd, "You guys act as if Christmas morning!" With many groans, the crowd began to disperse, and Christine gave a sigh of relief.

"Thanks."

"No problem. So are you feeling better?" Alayna asked with anxiety in her voice. All Christine could do was smile at the hypocrisy of her friend's question.

"Yeah, why?"

"'Cause we have practice tomorrow," Alayna replied in a business like tone before walking away. Christine and Hermione both giggled and walked over to the couch.

They sat talking for about ten minutes before Harry came walking in through the portrait. After a few seconds of looking around for someone, he finally located Christine sitting on the couch.

"Hey, glad to be back?" he asked as he kissed her and joined the girls in front of the fire.

"Yeah, I just don't want to think about all the work I missed," Christine groaned as she snuggled up to him and he slipped his arm around her small shoulders. "Where's Ron?"

"Eating, uh, we should probably join him," Harry stammered for a moment, while giving Hermione a wink.

"Sounds good, are you coming Hermione?" Christine asked her friend.

"No, I don't have much of an appetite. I think I'm going to go finish some homework," she responded and turned her back to her friends. Christine was about to argue with her, when Harry swept her out of the common room faster than you could have said appetite.

"What was that about?" Christine yelled a little winded and irritated at being rushed out of Gryffindor Tower so fast.

"Oh, I just, uh," Harry stammered, trying to answer the not so simple question. "I just thought we better get there before Ron eats everything." She eyed him trying to decide if she was going to believe him or not, but after remembering her red headed friend's love for food, dropped the subject. They walked to the Great Hall, talking the whole way about classes and how exciting it would be to be Aurors after Hogwarts. When they finally made their way over to Ron, Christine received the shock of her life. Ronald Weasley, her best friend who had been known to put away a whole turkey, had left his dinner plate untouched. As Christine sat down to think about this, she realized that with all the food he ate, he still seemed to be in very good shape. He was very muscular, but she couldn't remember him doing anything to get that way. She was jerked back to reality when someone along the table dropped a fork on their plate.

"Ron, what's wrong?" Christine asked, a little worried that her friend might be sick.

"Nothing," Ron smiled.

"Oh, then you already ate," she stated as if it was the only other possible explanation.

"No, why?" Ron chuckled with a quizzical look on his face.

"It's not like you to miss a meal," Christine continued. Harry in the meantime, seemed to be talking with Colin Creevey. When she turned back to Ron she asked, "So why aren't you eating?" Ron, however didn't answer, Harry did.

"Do you really want to know why Ron isn't eating?" Harry asked with a twinkle in his eyes. He knew he had ignited a spark in Christine's mind, and also knew that she could never ignore something so intriguing. She didn't know what to think, but only nodded in response.

"Then follow us," Harry said as he and Ron both got up from the table and walked out of the Great Hall. Christine followed them, and the three made their way back to the Fat Lady in silence. As they stood there, Christine still didn't know what to expect, and didn't even think about giving the Fat Lady the password. Harry and Ron, being the gentlemen that they were, muttered the password and stepped back.

"Ladies first," Harry insisted with that same mischievous twinkle in his eye, as both he and Ron bowed at the same time and ushered her in. Christine, still not sure if she trusted her friends, hesitantly walked through into the common room, and was met by the loud shouts of, "Surprise!" from her friends.

The room was decorated with balloons and streamers, confetti was flying everywhere, and a big banner that read "Welcome Back Christine!" was hanging above the crowd. Christine looked back at Harry and Ron only to find them both smiling proudly. She walked over and gave Ron a thank you hug.

"It was Harry's idea," he whispered in her ear before breaking the hug as Hermione joined them and stood next to Harry. Christine walked over and gave her other best friend a thank you hug as well, then turned to Harry.

"Thank you, so much," she whispered to him while giving him a hug and a kiss. All he could do was smile.

"Well then, I think it's time to start celebrating Christine's homecoming from the hospital," Ron grinned, "Christine, if you would be so kind as to cut the pie, I–"

"Pie? What no cake?" Christine teased, looking at Harry.

"Well, since we all know you hate cake, we decided to get something you liked," Harry explained, "I mean after all, the party is for you." He led her over to the table that had the pie on it, and handed her a knife. It was the biggest apple pie Christine had ever seen; it looked like a large pizza.

The party went on for hours as Christine laughed and joked with her friends at stupid things. However, being as she was a prefect, when the popaball's began to explode she had to stop laughing and help Hermione find the perpetrator. But she was able to once again enjoy herself once Dean and Seamus had relinquished their supply of Weasleys' Wizard Weezes. Soon, the large crowd that had once existed in the common room was down to about ten people. She began to yawn and rub her eyes, she was exhausted. She said her goodnights and she and Harry made their way to the stairs. She was about to say goodnight to him, when Ron and Hermione came over to them.

"Before you go to bed Christine, we have something to tell you both," Ron said.

"What is it?" she asked with a yawn.

"We just wanted you two to be the first to know," he continued.

"That we are officially dating," Hermione finished.

"Oh that's wonderful!" squealed Christine, she gave yet another hug to her friends, while Harry remained silent. When they three turned to see Harry's reaction, he seemed to be bored with the information.

"Harry what do you have to say?" Christine asked him with an icy tone, feeling that he was being a little rude.

"Well it's about time!" Harry chuckled with a cheeky grin, "Honestly, you two have been fighting like you were married since first year." Christine hit his arm and gave him a disbelieving look. He pretended to be hurt, and his impression just made the others laugh.. Christine and Harry said their goodnights one last time to their friends, and walked up the stairs to the door of the girls dormitories.

"Thank you Harry. This really was a great welcome home present."

"You're welcome. So what did you think of your first Quidditch match?" he asked as he pulled her closer to him and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I had a lot of fun," she yawned again.

"I'm glad I'm keeping you awake," he joked as he watched her.

"Shut up," she whispered as she looked down, thinking it was impolite to yawn in someone's face when they were that close to you. Harry moved her hair out of her face, and chuckled to himself.

"You better get to bed, Madame Pomfrey probably wouldn't like the fact that we gave you a party when you should have been resting." He kissed her softly on the lips and with a final hug, Christine pulled away and opened the door.

"Goodnight," she said and closed the door.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: ok guys im really sorry but harry potter and christine davet was a temporary titile until i found the one i wanted...and i did...its the same story just with a better name!**

**DISCLAIMER: so honsetly i dont anything except the davet family and the plot**

**R&R PLEASE!**

**and here we go...**

Chapter 7:

Christine and Hermione woke up early the next morning and quietly snuck out of their dormitory without waking up their roommates. They groggily walked down stairs and evaluated the mess before their eyes. Cups, bottles, plates napkins, to sum it all up in one word debris, from the party covered the floor. Slowly, they began to clean it up using various charms, and the carpet began to reappear.

"Where's Ron?" asked Hermione angrily with a yawn, "Isn't he supposed to be helping us?"

"Well, you three gave the party so I don't think _any_ of you should help clean up," Christine replied as if to accuse a child of stealing a cookie. Hermione just ignored the statement and continued flicking her wand at the littered rugs. As the girls finished cleaning the room and sat on the comfy couches to relax the boys came down.

"Morning all," Ron yawned as he ran his fingers through his ruffled red hair.

"Morning," Christine and Hermione absent-mindedly answered back. Harry stumbled over, sat next to Christine, still half asleep, and kissed her good morning.

"Well, let's go to breakfast," Ron smiled cheerfully as the others groaned.

"How can you think of food after all the junk we ate last night?" Hermione asked, looking a little green at the thought of food. Ron just sniggered at her question, and remained silent.

"I'm going to go get ready, I'm not hungry," stated Christine as she made her way back to her room.

"Wait! I'm coming with you," Hermione chimed in following her friend.

When the girls came back they found both Harry and Ron fast asleep on the couches, shivering.

"How are we going to wake them up?" Christine asked mischievously giving Hermione a wicked smile.

"Like this," she replied pulling out her wand, "_Tarantallegra,"_ she whispered. The boys jerked awake and began to dance uncontrollably, giving them a very awkward look. The girls began to laugh and ignored the pleas of their boyfriends. Finally, when they noticed that it was getting close to the start of classes and the boys were still in their pajamas, Hermione lifted the curse.

"That wasn't funny," panted Harry while glaring at the girls.

"Oh Harry, come one, we were just having a little fun waking you two up," Christine giggled playfully.

"Well there are other ways to wake a person you know," he snapped back; apparently he didn't find the joke as funny as the girls did.

"Harry I'm sorry, we wouldn't have done it if we thought you would be mad," Christine cooed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and looked into his eyes. "Please Harry, say you forgive me." After giving it a moments thought, he slipped his arms around her waist and pecked her on the lips.

"Oh all right. But promise me next time, just pour a bucket of cold water over us," he joked.

The friends made their way to their lessons after a long argument between Ron and Hermione. Lessons were still as tough as ever and the homework was being dumped in by the truck loads every night. When they reached Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Twopenny wasn't there. The class began to busy themselves with conversation as they waited for their instructor. Not long after everyone was deeply immersed in conversation, Professor Twopenny silently entered the classroom, and waited for the buzz to die down. He looked horrible standing up there in front of the class; he looked like he had just met Grawp for the first time.

"Class, today we are going to learn how to protect ourselves against dementors," he paused as the class looked around at each other. "I know it's a fifth year skill, but considering who your teacher was last year, I think the topic requires a refresher," he gave the class a half hearted smile, as if it hurt him. "Now, if you would please pair off among yourselves. That's it. Now, in order to cast this charm, you will need to think of the strongest, happiest memory in your own life. Then say "Expecto Patronum." This will produce your patronous charm and it will take the shape of a specific animal. I will be watching you as you practice."

"Harry, of course, produced the charm on his first attempt, as did most of the members from the D.A. When Christine produced the charm, her patronous turned into a panther and did a couple of laps around the room before evaporating into a grey mist.

"Well done," smiled the professor as he walked over to Harry and Christine

"Thank you sir," Christine replied while returning the smile. She could now see that he was even more beat up than he was when he was standing in front of the class. His right eye was swollen, purple and blood shot. He had a huge gash above his left eye brow and had scratches all over his arms. As he continued to walk through the rest of the class, Christine noticed a scorch mark on the back of his neck.

"Harry, look," she whispered as she pointed to the back of the teacher's neck. "We've got to talk to him."

"Let's stay after class," Harry suggested. Christine silently nodded and continued practicing her charm.

The lesson went on and Christine had filled in Hermione and Ron to what was going on and what they were planning by the time class was dismissed. They agreed to stay after with their friends. The rest of the class had filed out and were on their way to lunch while the four Gryffindors remained behind. All four of them approached their instructor who was seated behind a desk and waited for him to acknowledge their presence.

"I should've guessed that you four would stay after class," Twopenny stated with a small grin on his face. "I suppose you want to know why I've stopped talking to you outside of lessons for the past weeks." The students nodded and before the professor could say anything, Hermione stepped forward.

"Sir, we also wanted to know where and what you got the bruises from."

"Well, I know you're going to be sick of hearing this, but," he paused as he got up from his desk, "I can't tell you much." Guessing that their silence meant that they understood, Twopenny continued.

"Ok well, I can't tell you where I was. But Lupin found another clue to where the Death Eaters might be gathering. When he and I went to track the lead, we ran into a group of Death Eaters. It wasn't easy getting away from them as you can see," he gestured to his injuries, "But we did."

"But what was the clue that you found that lead you there?" Christine interrupted before he could finish.

"That I cannot tell you because Lupin and I are the only ones that know about it besides Dumbledore of course. And even if I did know, I would certainly not tell the four of you because I know how you people work," he continued giving them an accusing look. "Now that's all I am able to tell you. If you have anymore questions I suggest talking to the Headmaster."

After a few moments of worried glances and silence, Harry bid the professor goodbye on behalf of his friends and they left the class.

The rest of the day Christine was a bit distracted from her lessons as she pondered over the little bit of information Twopenny had given them.

"He must've been around here somewhere because he already told us that they are meeting within the castle gates," she thought to herself, "But how could they be so well concealed with so many security charms in place?" None of this made sense to her, but before she could dwell on her thoughts a moment longer, she was jerked back to reality by the sudden scuffle of feet towards a door. She packed her potion ingredients and walked with Hermione back to the common room.

A few weeks passed and soon the thought of Christmas was no longer just a thought. Lessons were beginning to wind down for the break and the minds of the students began to take an interest in presents.

Christine couldn't wait for the holidays to come. Rhett and Careen where coming home and Harry was going to spend the holidays with her. She was in a great mood all the time now, and she would smile at people she didn't even know like she had been their best friend for ten years. This put Harry in a good mood too. He had taken the song "Twelve Days of Christmas" literally and was giving Christine small presents everyday starting on December 12.

The last day of lessons was upon them. Hermione and Christine were packing their trunks and talking with Lavender and Parvati.

"Do you guys have any plans for Christmas?" Christine asked half distracted with her packing.

"Just spending time with the family really," Parvati answered in a less than happy tone. She suddenly seemed to perk up when she asked her next question. "What about you? I hear that Harry is going over to your house for the holidays."

"Yes he is," Christine answered not looking up at the girls excited faces. "My brothers and sister are going to be there too. I don't think my dad will be though."

"Why not?" Lavender asked remembering that her dad was in the muggle army for the United States.

"He's been sent to the pentagon for a couple of weeks and I'm not sure when he's coming home. But I got a letter from my mum saying that my brother and sister will be coming home for Christmas," she continued while brightening up at the thought.

"That's cool," said Parvati seeming bored with the idea of family again.

"Sorry to interrupt," said Ginny popping her head through the door, "but we need to go to the carriages now."

"We'll be right down Ginny," Hermione informed her and the girls brought their trunks down to the carriages. Harry and Ron met up with the girls in the common room and together, they walked out to the carriages. They reached the trains and found an empty compartment near the back.

"Oy! There's an empty one over here!" Ron yelled back to his friends who were currently fighting their way through the crowd that was trying to find seats. " Hey! You munchkins stay away from here!" he snapped at a couple of third years who were eyeing the compartment.

"Ron be nice! It's the holidays you should be happy," Hermione hissed. "Excuse him, he seems to have been absent the day they passed out manners," she eyed him teasingly, "You can share a compartment with us if you like." The third years looked up at her about to accept, then looked at Ron.

"No thanks," one of the girls in the group said and they disappeared into the crowds.

"I think we need to work on your people skills mate," Harry grinned as he clapped his hand on Ron's shoulder. The friends made themselves comfortable in the cabin and settled in for the long ride.

They talked for a while before Ron and Hermione had to patrol the corridors and left. Christine cuddled up to Harry and told her more about her family before finally falling asleep in his arms. A couple hours later, they woke up and to the rude shaking of Hermione.

"Christine! Harry! Wake up!" Hermione's shrill voice rang through their ears like a high pitch squeal. "We're here." Slowly, Christine and Harry followed their friends off the train trailing their heavy trunks behind them.

At first, Christine couldn't find her family, but since she was saying good-bye to Ron and Hermione, she was glad she couldn't find them. But when she stepped off of the train and down onto the platform, she immediately spotted her mother and siblings standing a few meters away.

"There they are," Christine said to Harry as she waved to her mother. Harry looked a little pale, but smiled all the same. Christine left Harry standing next to the train, thinking he would follow her, and ran up to hug her mother.

Mrs. Davet was about the same height as Christine and had the same hourglass figure as her daughters. Her hair was much lighter than Christine's and had no curl to it whatsoever. She was standing with three other people; two of them looked a little older than Christine and the other was clearly younger. The older boy and girl were twins and had the same slight curl to their hair as Christine, but their eyes had a hazel tint to them. The little boy holding his mother's hand however, looked nothing like the rest of his family. His hair was more curly than any of the family's and his eyes were a crystal blue color.

When Christine finished saying her hello's and hugging her brothers and sister, she turned to see Harry hanging back next to the train. She walked over to him with a confused look on her face.

"What are you doing over here?" Christine asked as she grabbed Harry's hand and began to lead him over to her family.

"Nothing, just giving you a chance to say 'hi' to your family," Harry lied quickly.

"'Ya know Harry, you're not a very good liar when you lie to me," she stated looking him in the eye. Harry just blushed and allowed Christine to drag him over to her awaiting family.

"Mother, you remember Harry. Rhett, Careen, Cade, this is Harry Potter," Christine announced.

"Oh yes, how are you?" Mrs. Davet asked with a warm and friendly smile.

"Fine thank you," Harry replied with a slightly nervous smile. Christine noticed he had a tinge of pink in his cheeks.

"Hi Harry, I'm Rhett," the older boy said, extending his hand for Harry to shake. Harry just smiled and nodded his head as he accepted his hand. The girl standing behind Rhett stepped forward and with the same warm smile as her mother said, "Hi, my names Careen. It's nice to meet you."

"Hi," Harry whispered through his smile, which was now more relaxed.

The little boy who had been standing next to his mother and older brother didn't say anything; he just seemed to be examining Harry with a look that reminded him of Professor Snape.

"Here, let me take that for you Christy," Rhett said as he took the handle of Christine's trunk.

"Thanks. Where's the car?" Christine asked.

"It's over there," her mother responded.

The car ride to the Davet house was short as the family lived on the outskirts of London, which was a convenience that was much appreciated by Mr. Davet who worked at the United States Embassy. Harry and Rhett began to unload the trunks out of the car and Cade carried in Hedwig's cage.

The house was beautiful, huge and very-well decorated. It had three stories; a basement, a main floor and a second floor. In the basement there was a game room with a pool table, a couch and a t.v. The first floor was meant for entertaining and had a huge dining room that could easily seat twelve people. The kitchen was large enough for about five other people to move around in and there were two other rooms on the floor. One was used as a family room for relaxing and the other was a formal sitting area that was only used when a lot of people were over at the house.

The second floor was a little smaller than the downstairs living rooms, but it still had room for five bedrooms. The master bedroom, three rooms for the kids, and then a guest room. Careen and Christine had shared a room since Cade was born and nobody had ever thought of changing the arrangements. The all of the rooms faced each other, except for the master bedroom which was at the end of the hallway.

After helping her mother with dinner, Christine quickly ran up the stairs to put her things away. Careen was right on her heels and slammed the door shut as she entered the room.

"Christine, guess what!" she blurted out with excitement oozing from her words.

"What?" Christine asked quickly as her curiosity again got the better of her.

"I just talked to mum and she got a letter from dad today. Christy, he's going to be home for the holidays!" Careen exclaimed.

"Really? Great! When is he coming?" she asked her older sister with an expectant look.

"I think she said he'll be home in time to get a Christmas tree, but I could be wrong so don't count on it too much," Careen added quickly as Christine jumped with delight. The girls talked for a couple of minutes on different things before the conversation turned to their love lives.

"So how's Eric?" Christine asked slyly as she casually put her clothes in her dresser.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to get to him," Careen smiled. She propped herself up on her elbow and completely ignored the question.

"More to _my_ point I want to know more about Harry. I mean all I know is that you used to be best friends. When did he ask you out?" Careen stated with a look in her eyes that reminded of Christine a hunter about to close in on her prey.

"At the start of term. It was really quite nice actually," Christine answered remembering clearly the day they went to Hogsmeade. She made herself comfortable on her bed and recited the whole story to her sister who appropriately sighed and awed at the right places.

"So when I told him that mum said it would be okay if he stayed with us, he was happier than ever," Christine finished about five minutes later.

"Kids, it's time for dinner!" Mrs. Davet yelled up the stairs from the kitchen.

"Well I think he's sweet, and I give you my full permission to date him longer, because Lord knows you've liked a more stupider person," Careen giggled as the girls left their room.

"Thank you, your majesty," Christine retorted sarcastically, adding the curtsey for dramatic effect. Her sister laughed and walked down the stairs. Christine lagged behind, noticing that Harry was still in his room unpacking.

"Hey, everything all right?" Christine asked as she knocked on the door.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Just making sure I have all the presents I'm supposed to have," Harry responded as he closed his trunk.

"Harry you didn't have to get me another present," Christine reminded him with a hint of embarrassment in her voice.

"I know, but I like giving you things, and I got presents for your family as well," he beamed proudly.

"Harry, you didn't hav– "

"–ave to buy them presents," Harry imitated her with a bored expression on his face. "I know that, but this is the first time I'll have the chance to buy presents for more than ten people."

Christine, who had found herself sitting on his bed, looked into his eyes and couldn't argue with him anymore. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and began to head down to dinner.

"Hey, how did you know what to get everybody?" Christine questioned as she just thought of that little problem.

"Well, I asked Fred and George help me with Rhett's present, since they knew him in school. I had Hermione help with Careen's, and had Mr. and Mrs. Weasley help me with your parents," Harry explained as he took her hand and walked with her down the stairs.

"Well what about Cade? Who did you have help you with him?" she asked Harry now worried that he might have forgotten her youngest brother.

"I got him something from Fred and George's shop," Harry grinned.

"My mother is going to kill you Harry," Christine laughed. The couple reached the kitchen table where everyone was waiting for them. They sat down to a lovely dinner and desert that was prepared by the girls and their mother. After dinner the family moved into the living room where they listened to Rhett talk about his job in Boston and Careen and Parris. Harry seemed to slowly slide into the comfort of the family and was as relaxed with them as he was the Weasley's by the time the night was over. Soon, Mrs. Davet announced that she was going to bed and she was soon followed by the rest of her children and Harry.

When Christine had changed into her warm pajama pants and tank top, she went to make sure Harry had everything he needed. She knocked on the door a couple times before he answered and let her enter.

"Hi," Christine smiled, "Sorry, I know you're probably really tired, but I just wanted to make sure you didn't need anything. We have some extra blankets if you want one in the closet."

"Thanks," he said, "But I think I'll be fine."

"Ok, well goodnight," she said and turned to leave the room.

"Hey!" Harry said quickly as he got off the bed and hurried over to Christine. "You didn't think you'd get away without giving me a goodnight kiss did you?"

"Oh how could I have been so stupid?" Christine teased. She gave him a quick nothing kiss on his cheek and turned to leave again.

"Oh you're so funny," Harry laughed sarcastically before grabbing her arm and turning her back around. He kissed her sweetly and let her go with a whispered goodnight. Christine smiled at him and went back to her room.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

A few days passed and there was still no sign of Christine's father. As usual, the family got ready to leave to find a Christmas tree two days before Christmas Eve, when the front door opened on its own. Instinctively, Harry, Christine, Careen and Rhett all drew their wands and pointed towards the door.

"Meg! Cade! Christine! I'm home!" rang the loud voice of a man whose figure emerged from behind the door. His form became visible as he walked into the house; a tall man with ocean blue eyes underneath dark brown eyebrows. His hair was neatly buzzed, but it was easy to see that it was just as dark as his youngest son's. He walked with a light, graceful step and smiled brightly when he saw his children standing before him. "Well, it's nice to see you. Now, I know I've been gone for a while, but honestly, is it necessary to hex your dear old dad?" The kids laughed at their father's usual corny jokes before rushing forward to welcome him home.

"I didn't know you two were going to be home this Christmas," Mr. Davet mentioned to Rhett and Careen as he hugged Christine and looked over her shoulder. But before either one of them could answer, Christine's mother came running down the stairs.

"Jack!" Mrs. Davet squealed with delight as she ran down the stairs and threw herself at her husband. "Why didn't you call from the station?"

"That would've ruined the surprise. Besides, I didn't get in until about 4:30 this morning," he smiled. "So what are we doing this morning? If memory serves me right, we should be looking for a tree today."

"Don't you want to rest Dad?" Rhett asked with a small grin on his face.

"Why would I do that when I could be out getting a tree with my family?" Mr. Davet said and shooed everyone out the door. As everyone filed past him, Mr. Davet counted them like little soldiers.

"Wait a minute. Who are you?" he asked Harry bluntly when he noticed him for the first time. Harry looked back at Christine –who was quickly positioning herself between Harry and her father– for any help that he could get.

"Um, Daddy," Christine started in the sweetest voice she could muster. "This is Harry Potter. You remember me talking about him don't you? He's the boy that plays on the Gryffindor team and "

"Oh yeah. So you go to school with Christine?"

"Yes sir," Harry replied in a small voice.

"Daddy," Christine interrupted again as she sensed that overbearing side of her father, "Um, we are, uh, that is to say–" Christine paused again before taking a deep breath and calming herself down. "Daddy, we have been dating for a while now." Christine smiled nervously and watched as her father's face changed from her happy father to that of the strictest drill sergeant. She took a few steps back and bumped into Harry who was as rigid as a board. Mr. Davet seemed to be sizing Harry up and an awkward pause followed.

"Well I guess it's all right," Mr. Davet stated reluctantly. Christine and Harry let out a sigh of relief, only audible to the two of them.

"So, um let's go get a tree then," Christine smiled meekly and she walked out to the car.

Mr. Davet gave Harry a piercing look that made the Gryffindor shiver.

The family and Harry drove out to a forest in the middle of nowhere and began looking for trees. After a couple of hours of searching, they still hadn't found a tree.

"What about this one?" Rhett suggested in a bored drawl.

"No, it has a bald spot near the bottom," Mrs. Davet criticized coldly after examining the tree for a whole five seconds.

"Well, all of the trees have a bald spot somewhere," Mr. Davet whined. "There's going to be decorations on it too, so that'll cover up the spot. I mean we could get a tree with three branches and nobody would notice with all the decorations we have." Mrs. Davet spun around and looked at her husband as if he were the most despicable thing on the planet.

"I will not be forced to settle for a–," she stammered as she thought of a word to describe what she wouldn't settle for, "–a substandard Christmas tree Jack!" Mr. Davet scowled for a minute and walked off in the other direction.

"Are we having fun yet?" he yelled back at his wife while continuing to storm off in the other direction.

"Fa La La La La, La La La La!" Mrs. Davet screamed back at him with the sharpness of a knife. This little tiff sent the kids into a silent fit of giggles as they wandered through the trees.

"It's so cold. I don't remember it ever being this cold," Christine stated as she continued to shiver. She conjured up a small fire in a jar and held onto it as if it were a priceless heirloom. Harry crossed over to her, wrapped his arms around her and placed his hands on the jar.

"That feels good," Harry sighed as he moved to get closer to the fire.

"Don't move, your warm," Christine protested. Harry smiled, stayed where he was, and the couple searched for more trees.

"Harry, what do you think of this one?" Christine asked while gazing up at a tree that was about eight feet tall and full of branches with nobald spots.

"It's great. You should go get your mum," Harry answered. Christine hurried off to get her mother and returned with her shortly.

"What a great tree. Jack! Jack, over here! We found it!" Mrs. Davet shouted straight up into the sky.

"Finally," Mr. Davet muttered under his breath. A few minutes later, the tree was cut down and magically altered to fit in the trunk.

The day before Christmas Eve was busier than ever. A tradition in Mrs. Davet's family, the Pre Christmas Eve Party, was not the kind of party that any Hogwarts student thought of, unlessthey were very rich. Mrs. Davet was the daughter of an English lord and with that title came heavy responsibility. She was always held to a very high standard in her parents home and was always expected to marry someone with the same social ranking. Needless to say, her parents were not especially happy about her marriage to an American soldier, but as they got to know him, they liked him and soon he was seen as a son, not some stranger.

This year the party was being held at Netherfield Hall, one of the family's estates, and Mrs. Davet was able to get Harry invited . The Davet party arrived at the house that afternoon and spent the time leading to the party enjoying the relaxing atmosphere the house possessed. But Harry, who was grateful for the invitation, wasn't sure if this was going to be such a great idea.

"Christine, I've never been to a _nice_ party let alone a formal party full of dukes and duchesses. What if I make a fool of myself?" Harry breathed heavily and sat down on the couch in one of the parlors.

"This making a fool of yourself seems to be an obsession of yours, Harry," Christine smiled as she crossed over to the couch and sat next to Harry. "If you're that worried about it, I'm sure Rhett and Daddy would help you out. Go talk to them," she reassured him, as she slipped her arm through his and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Do you think they'll be able to?"

"Of course. If Daddy could learn how to act like an aristocrat, I'm sure he would have no problem teaching you. Maybe you could even use it to connect with him," Christine added with a cheeky smile. "Go talk to Rhett at least."

"All right," Harry sighed shaking his head and he set off to find her older brother. Christine smiled to herself and hurried up the stairs to visit with her sister and cousins. She had barely reached the top of the stairs when a she heard a squeal from up ahead.

"Christine!" called the voice.

"Lizzie! When did you get here?" Christine asked as she realized who the voice belonged to and hurried forward to hug her favorite cousin.

"A couple of minutes ago. Mum and Dad are talking to one of Grandpa's friends downstairs."

"Did your brothers come with you?" Christine continued.

"No, they were going to Derbyshire for a long weekend before they have to go back to work. They start again on the twenty-seventh," Lizzie finished.

"Oh that's too bad. Well, I'm glad you're here. Anything new?" Christine questioned.

"Not really. Jeremy and I broke up, but that's about it. What about you? Any new love interests?" Lizzie asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"He's talking with Rhett," Christine answered with a shy smile.

"Oh! Really? Who is _he_?" Lizzie suddenly became more interested in the conversation.

"His name is Harry, I go to school with him and he plays onmy Quidditch team." Even though Lizzie was a muggle, she knew what Quidditch was. She was the second person Christine told about Hogwarts outside of her parents and siblings. The girls walked into one of the parlors and continued their conversation where they were joined by Careen and some of their other relatives. The time seemed to fly past and one by one, the relatives dwindled away and up the stairs to get ready for the ball.

"Christine, I'm going to go get dressed. I can't wait to see your dress, or Harry for that matter. That must have been some talk they had, he hasn't been inhere all afternoon. He sounds charming ignoring his girlfriend like this," Lizzie said with a wink and a roll of her eyes. Christine laughed at her cousin before following her out of the parlor and down the hallway into a separate room.

At about 5:30, there came a knock on Christine's door.

"Come in," she answered automatically.

"Hey, are you ready yet?" Careen asked from the doorway.

"Almost. Could you help me put this on?" Christine questioned as she showed her sister the necklace. Careen walked behind her younger sister and began to clasp the necklace at the back of her neck.

"You look very nice," Christine stated as she saw her sister's reflection in the mirror.

"Thanks, so do you." Careen paused for a second before speaking again. "Have you seen Eric or Rhett since this afternoon?"

"No, I sent Harry to find Rhett earlier this afternoon and I haven't seenhim since. Why?" "Because I haven't seen any of them since about the time Lizzie got here."

"Hmm, same with me now that I think of it. I'm sure they're fine," Christine said with a slight twinkle in her eye at the thought of Harry with her father for longer than five minutes. It was evil, she admitted, but it still was funny. Another few moments of silence passed as finally Careen clasped the necklace together.

"You know, I could get used to this," Careen said more to herself than her sister.

"Get used to what?" Christine asked as she pulled on her gloves.

"Oh you know, the gloves, the beautiful dresses, the expensive food. I could definitely get used to the life of a queen," Careen answered with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Then you better leave Eric," Christine scoffed as they walked out the door of her room.

"What do you mean?" Careen asked with a hesitant glance to her sister.

"Well, if you want all of this all the time, you're going to need a richer fiancé." Careen laughed out loud as they turned the corner to the stairs' landing and met the boys, Rhett and Lizzie. Everyone looked so elegant in their formal attire and Harry looked so handsome in his clothes. Christine entered the ball on Harry's arm, and they followed Rhett, who was escorting Lizzie, and Careen, who was escorted by Eric.

The ballroom was decorated beautifully and there were people everywhere.

"Who are all these people?" Harry whispered to Christine as he led through the crowds to the dance floor.

"I don't know really. You know Lizzie," Christine pointed out as her cousin danced past them in the arms of a young man who was chatting away to an uninterested audience. Christine wasn't surprised to see Lizzie with another guy, the only reason Rhett had escorted her was because they were the only two singles on the landing. "Most of these people are friends of the family and as my grandfather is the oldest of six children and my mother the middle of five, we have a lot of friends of the family." Harry chuckled to himself, as he imagined all those people. He took Christine's hand and began to dance with her across the floor. Christine had always been interested to know how Harry had learned to dance. She remembered the Yule Ball, but she couldn't remember if someone taught him or if he already knew. She snapped out of her thoughts as she saw her brother dance by.

"Harry, did you and Rhett talk all afternoon?" Christine asked as she realized there had been a calm air about him ever since she met him on the landing.

"Yeah, he calmed me down and your dad gave me some advice that helped a lot."

"What did he say?" Christine asked; she hated it when Harry tempted her with a little bit of a secret, then stopped talking altogether.

"Just that if I wanted to make a good impression on everyone, I shouldstay with you all nightand wait for others to start conversations. I figured staying with you would be easy."

"Oh Harry. See? Dad's not as mean as he wants you to think. It's all that military training."

Christine and Harry floated lightly across the dance floor, immersed in their own pleasant conversation. But an unnoticed guest watched them like a lion stalking its prey, and sat waiting for the right moment to pounce.

"Keep an eye on her at all times Harry. You never know when the thing that first brought you together will come back and tear you apart," the mysterious man muttered to himself before he left to meet his companions on the dark, freezing grounds of the estate.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Christmas Day and New Year's Day seemed to fly by for Christine and Harry as they spent their favorite holidays together at the Davet house. Christine had a smile on her face all through the season and she couldn't remember laughing harder. Her family loved Harry and as far as she could tell, Harry loved being with her family.

The trip soon ended and it was time for Christine and Harry to return to Hogwarts for the final term. Christine's family took the pair back to King's Cross Station and bid them goodbye from the platform.

"Thank you very much Mrs. Davet. This is the best Christmas I've ever had," Harry smiled gratefully.

"You're very welcome Harry. It was nice having you with us. I hope you'll come back with Christine over summer," she answered as she gave him a hug.

"Thank you, goodbye." Harry walked up and into the train as Christine finished saying her goodbyes.

They found a compartment near the back of the train and were shortly met by Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville. The group was lively on the journey as they all talked and laughed about what they had done over Christmas.

"Mum and Dad took me skiing for Christmas and surprised me by bringing Ron up with us," Hermione said with a dreamy far off look in her eyes. "It was so much fun."

"Yeah, it was fun all right. I think I prefer brooms to the way muggles fly," Ron explained to the group. "There were a couple of times I thought I was going down."

"Ron, do you mean to tell me that you flew on a plane? Oh, I would have paid good money to see that," Harry joked. Everyone laughed, even Ron, but the fun was cut short as the whistle of the Hogwarts Express sounded through Hogsmeade station.

"I can't believe how cold it has been this year. I don't think it's stopped snowing since Halloween," Christine shivered as they made their way towards the carriages. The Gryffindors soon found themselves marching up to their tower and were greeted by the smell of gingerbread and peppermint. The tables were full of leftover cookies from Christmas, and the fires were blazing in the grates.

"Home sweet home," Harry whispered into Christine's ear with a smile. She just sighed and walked up the stairs to her room to unpack. She was back downstairs with a book and in her favorite armchair by the time the rest of the group had left the common room.

"Christine!" called Parvati from the portrait hole as she lugged her trunk behind her.

"Hey, do you want some help?" Christine asked as she got up to help her friend.

"That would be great thanks. So how was your holiday?"

"Oh it was fun,my parents got on well with Harry and the ball was awesome," Christine explained as she helped Parvati bring her things up to the girls dormitory.

"Ball? What ball are you talking about?" Parvati asked with a mischievious glint in her eye. Christine explained about the ball and it's tradition, while Parvati's eyes got bigger and bigger and her mouth began to water.

"How was yours?" Chrstine asked when she had finished.

"It was ok. We had one little problem though," Parvati continued.

"Problem? What do you mean?"

"Well, we found out that one of my uncle's co-workers is a Death Eater and he showed up to our Christmas celebrations. Nobody was hurt, but he sure scared all of us. He yelled something about "rivers curled and snow unwhirled" before he Apparated. Does that mean anything to you?"

"No, no why?" Christine questioned hesitantly.

"I don't know. I thought since Harry has to fight You-Know-Who, it might be of some help to him."

"It doesn't mean anything to me, but thanks Parvati, I'll let him know."

Hermione and Christine headed down to dinner before the boys had finished unpacking and were talking about what Parvati had said when Ron came into the hall alone.

"Christine, Harry wants to talk to you for a second. He's waiting outside the hall." Christine exchanged a look with Hermione and slowly made her way out of the Great Hall. At first she couldn't find him, but as she explored the entryway a little more she found him lingering behind a statue.

"Harry, what are you doing?" she asked him with a curious tone. It wasn't like Harry to hide behind statues when there was nothing to hide from.

"Um, Parvati told me about the Death Eater at her Christmas celebrations," he paused for a minute before continuing. "I went and talked to Twopenny just now. I didn't tell him about whatParvati said, but he said that whatever Voldemort is trying to do, it's getting close. He wants you, Hermione, Ron and me to find a place where we can go if Death Eaters get into the castle."

"Is that even a possibility?"

"He thinks so. But I was thinking we could take them to the place where I asked you out."

"But why would he want us to find a hiding spot? It seems kind of, well, like the castle isn't safe anymore," she explained.

"I don't know, but Twopenny thinks that we need to have a place to go if something did happen."

"It's hidden fairly well and I have a feeling not too many people know about it."

"Ok that's where we're going then. Now, on a much happier note," he said as he pulled her closer to him, "Let's go eat." Christine laughed as she let him lead her into the Great Hall. "Oh, don't tell them anything yet," Harry muttered under his breath as they sat down.

Dinner was fairly quiet, the conversation was fairly boring and the four friends decided to go back to the tower early. They sat in silence around the fire and Christine and Harry cuddled for a while before sleep finally overcame Christine.

"I'm going to bed," Christine yawned as she got up and stretched. "Night all."

"Goodnight," three other voices replied in the same drowsy tone. She gave Harry a kiss goodnight and vanished up the stairs.

Lessons began again the next day and the usual wishes and whining for the holidays to be back was heard throughout the castle. During one of their free periods, the friends returned to Gryffindor Tower to relax. Well, for the boys to relax and the girls to start their homework.

"Ronald! Wake up!" Hermione was yelling in the slumbering red head's ear. He stirred only slightly from his sleep before turning over away from Hermione.

"Honestly!" she sighed in exasperation.

Harry, who slept very lightly these days, was up as soon as Christine muttered his name.

"Harry, it's time for Potions, come on we have to go," Christine stated as she gathered her supplies.

"Potions always messes up everything. I was having such a good dream," Harry whined as he ran his fingers through his hair and over his eyes. Christine chose to ignore the statement and urged him to grab his supplies as well.

"Hurry up! We're going to be late, _again_!" Hermione shouted from the other side of the portrait hole. Ron, whose hair was rumpled and shirt half untucked, scrambled to get his things together and out of the portrait hole.

Potions was horrible. Snape was in a particularly nasty mood, and as Harry was in his class, it justwasn't a good mixture. Even though he was on time, Harry was still docked points for entering the class too loudly and disrupting the students who were already there, as Snape put it. By the end of the class, Harry was fuming.

"He has got to be the biggest gi – "

"Harry! Watch it, you're not that far away from the class," Christine warned as she gave him a reproaching look.

"Well he is. He was just looking for a reason to take points from us. We were the only house keeping Slytherin from taking the House Cup," Ron chimed in.

"Even so, we don't want more points taken away from us for name calling," Hermione reasoned. And that was the end of the conversation, as at that moment Professor Twopenny rushed up tothe students.

"You four, follow me," he said sternly. The students shared a curious look with each other before running to catch up with their professor. Once inside his office, there was silence. Nobody said anything or even dared to breathe louder than normal. Finally, after a few more moments of tension, Twopenny spoke up.

"Something's gone wrong," Twopenny started as he crossed to the window and gazed out. "We were tracking some of the Death Eaters and found out which day the secret was to be launched. That day has come and gone, and there is still no sign of the two members who discovered the information. Dumbledore wanted you to know, because he thinks that the more you know about what Voldemort is planning now, the better prepared you will be for it later."

"Prepared for what exactly Professor?" Hermione asked fearing the answer.

Twopenny continued to blankly stare out of the frost bitten window. Slowly, he turned back around as if to keep the truth from them as long as possible.

"The invasion of Hogwarts," he replied mystically. Christine was taken aback and glanced at the other three to see their reactions. As she had expected, their mouths were hanging open in disbelief. How was this possible? Hogwarts had always been the safest place to be while Voldemort was around, how could it all of a sudden be the vulnerable target for an invasion? Twopenny went back to staring out the window.

"Harry maybe you should tell him about what Parvati told us," Christine suggested under her breath. Harry nodded before turning his attention back to his teacher.

"Professor, um, Parvati Patil said that a Death Eater showed up to her Christmas and said something about "rivers curled and snow unwhirled" before that have something to do with this invasion?" he asked.

"Probably, it would fit the description of their hidden meeting place," Twopenny explained. "But that's not for sure. Harry have you come up with your meeting spot?" Harry nodded. "Good, then I expect you to be there when the invasion comes. You'll know in plenty of time to get there, I'll make sure of that," Twopenny assured them. "Now, go back to your dormitories, I don't want you guys to be wandering the halls too long."

They trudged back to the common room depressed and scared. They silently sat back down to do the rest of their homework, but this time there was no glint of happiness in any of their faces. Reality hadn't sunk in yet and they still refused to believe that the castle wasn't safe anymore. The hours ticked by slowly and, uncharacteristically, there was absolutely no conversation among the friends.

The next week brought nothing new or exciting for the four sixth year Gryffindors. Christmas was over along with all the holiday hustle and bustle and everything had died down a bit. Harry and Christine had told Ron and Hermione about the meeting spot and all agreed on it. School days seemed to slowly creep by while the lessons began to become routine, Quidditch was over and final exams were about six weeks away. Defense Against the Dark Arts was no longer as enjoyable as it once had been; it became the constant reminder of the upcoming invasion. Hermione had all of them in the library studying for finals already but seemed a bit distracted. If she was having a tough time staying focused, there was no hope for the rest of them. Christine couldn't pay attention to anything, she was so worried. She kept thinking about what would happen if Harry had to battle Voldemort sooner than he was expecting. She was awoken from her private thoughts at the sound of a deep voice.

"Hermione, how long does this essay have to be again?" Ron whined as the four friends worked on their potions essays in the library.

"Two rolls of parchment," she replied automatically without looking up from her work.

"Oh yeah."

Silence fell upon the group again as they worked to finish their homework. The girls were almost done with all of their homework, while the boys were just barely finishing their homework for one class. As their quills scratched the parchment, Ginny came in to the library.

"Hi guys," she said brightly. Christine envied the younger girl's ignorance.

"Hi," came the monotone reply from four mouths that seemed to be concentrated on other things.

"Christine, here's a letter for you. This owl was buzzing around the common room waiting for you," Ginny explained.

"Thanks," Christine forced a smile, but she was puzzled as to why she would be getting an owl this late.

Christine hesitantly opened the letter and began to read. The letter went from bad to worse in less than five seconds. Her face fell and her heart stopped. She couldn't believe this was happening to her, _now_.

"Oh no," she choked.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked and as she said this, she caught Harry and Ron's attention. Christine remained silent and stared blankly at the letter. Tears started to form in her eyes as she thought about what the letter said. She got up and left the library, ignoring the pleas of her friends to tell them what was wrong.

"Christine! Christine wait!" yelled Harry from the door of the library as he ran after her. She quickened her pace, again ignoring what Harry was shouting. He caught up to her and grabbed her arm. He spun her around only to find that her face was now covered with streaks from the trails the tears from her eyes had left.

"What's wrong?" he asked again this time more worried for what was going on.

"Harry, please, just let me go," Christine gulped as she struggled to get away from him.

"Christine, tell me what's wrong!" Harry demanded again as he tried to comfort her.

"There's nothing you can do Harry!" she screamed in total frustration. She began sobbing uncontrollably. "I'm sorry. Just let me go, please."

He let go of her arm and she ran all the way back to Gryffindor Tower.

As she ran through the portrait hole the normal chattering of the common room died, and the curious, prying eyes of her classmates followed her up the stairs which led to the girls dormitories. She wrenched the door open and slammed it just as fast as she had opened it. She collapsed on her bed and lost herself in the tears that didn't seem to stop. A while later, there was a soft knock on the door.

"Christine?" Hermione's voice came from outside the door. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," Christine answered as she gazed out the window next to her bed. Hermione walked in and sat next to her on the bed.

"I'm sorry," Christine started as she sat up and looked her best friend in the eye. "I'm sorry for running out like that."

"I know I've already asked you this but what happened?" Hermione asked again. Christine paused for a moment before she grabbed the letter that caused her so much pain and showed it to Hermione.

"Read it, it should explain everything," Christine explained.

As Hermione read the letter, her hand covered her mouth and she gasped.

"Oh no.You're moving, andto Australia of all places!"

"Yeah, and I have to go. We talked about this, before I even started first year. My parents said that I could attend Hogwarts as long I understood that if Dad got transferred I had to move with the family. They say that until I come of age, I have to live with the family." Christine was on the verge of tears again.

"You have to tell Harry. I think you really hurt him."

"That's the last thing I wanted to do. But I can't tell him, not yet,I'm not ready."

"Whether you are or not, you have to. He's wants to know how you are," Hermione explained.

"Where is he?" Christine asked.

"In the common room."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Christine washed her face quickly trying to reduce some of the redness her crying had left. As her dormitory door creaked open she felt her stomach drop. Slowly, she walked down the winding staircase to find Harry moodily staring into the fire. Christine swallowed nervously as she picked her way across the room to sit next to him.

"Hi Harry," she choked out trying to keep herself from breaking down into sobs again. He remained silent and his gaze remained transfixed on the waving flames. "Harry, I really need to explain what happened earlier. It's important," she explained.

Harry looked into her eyes and saw the urgency flicker behind them. He sighed loudly and nodded his head for her to continue. Christine looked around for a place where they could have a little privacy. Her eyes fell on a corner of the common room, that was partially hidden behind curtains and tables. She reached over, took his hand and guided him to the hidden corner.

"Um, Harry, that letter I got today had some really bad news in it," Christine started. She looked down at her hands and picked at her nails for a moment. She took a calming breath and spoke again.

"Harry my dad's been transferred to Australia," she sputtered. She could feel the tears begin to roll softly down her cheeks. She didn't dare look into the eyes that were wide with shock.

"Are you sure? I mean is there anyway that it's a mistake?" he asked quietly. Christine could sense the despair in his voice and it only made the tears in her eyes fall faster. "Is there anyway that you could stay?"

"It's not very likely. My parents made it very clear that I have to stay with the family until I'm old enough to be on my own."

"I can't believe this. How much time do we have?" he inquired again, somberly. Christine was afraid to tell him the news. She wiped the newest water droplets from her eyes before answering.

"'Til the end of the week."

"What!" he shouted at the top of his voice. Their house mates turned to look at the direction of the shadowed corner. Harry led Christine out of the common room and into the corridor where they would be alone.

"You can't leave that soon," Harry reasoned, "Dumbledore will have had to make the arrangements for you to transfer to the Australian school."

"That must be taken care of because my parents are coming to get me from Hogsmeade on Friday."

Harry began to pace back and forth in front of the Fat Lady as he searched for a way to keep Christine with him through the end of the year.

"Ah!" he screamed as he slammed his fists against the walls over and over again. It took all of Christine's strength to keep him from hurting himself as he took out his rage on the stone. She embraced him in a tight hug, and his emotion seemed to vanish as her arms held him.

"What am I going to do with out you? Everything I've ever loved or wanted has been taken from me," Harry began. There was a moment of silence in which Christine only cried harder into Harry's chest.

"But then, maybe it's for the best."

"What?" Christine asked in disbelief as she moved away to look him in the face. "How can this possibly be for the best? Harry, I'm leaving on Friday. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to come back to England. How can you say something like that?"

"Easily. If I have no one to love, Voldemort can't use them to get to me," he replied; his voice was completely empty of emotion. Christine pulled even further away from him, and just stared. She became angry and hurt as the words he had just spoken kept replaying in her head.

"Harry, that is the most pig headed thing I've ever heard you say. How can you turn your back on love when it's been your protector all your life? Love is what kept you alive when Voldemort murdered your parents, love is what kept you alive in the Department of Mysteries, and love is what you need to destroy that evil man. Now you dare to lose faith in it? That's like deserting your parents, Sirius," she paused as if this next statement was going to kill her, "even deserting me. How could you?" Christine cried.

She ran past him and back through the portrait hole where the stares of her house mates again followed her up to the dormitories. She ran into the room to see Parvati, Lavender and Hermione talking. When they saw the tears pouring out of her eyes, immediately they began to bombard her with questions.

"I need to clear my head," was the only response she would give the girls. She whipped her cloak out of her trunk and ran back out of the tower. She ignored Harry as she passed him near the portrait hole.

The air was crisp, cool and swept through Christine's body as she walked through the courtyards of her school. Her face was frozen not only from the wind, but from the trickling streams of tears that left cold, shining paths of water on her face as she cried. She went out to the lake side and sat down on the iced over rock that she and Harry had talked on so long ago. The trees rustled in the wind, and she could hear the same wind whistling over the soft wakes it created on the icy water. The sunset painted the sky a reddish orange color and for the first time that day Christine caught herself smiling a little.

Snow crunched underneath her shoes as she began the trek back to the tower. Her breath froze the moment it escaped her lips and fragile flakes of snow began to fall from the sky. Her hair bounced over her shoulders with every stride she took. She reached her dormitory to find the same three girls sitting on their beds talking, only this time she knew what the topic was.

"Well, this certainly has been an exciting afternoon," Christine said sarcastically with a sniffle as she tried to lighten the mood a little. The other girls remained silent, not wanting to upset her. Christine busied herself with getting ready for bed as dinner ended an hour ago; not that she minded, her appetite was nonexistent.

"I guess you've all heard that I'm leaving Friday?" Christine guessed as she made herself comfortable on her bed.

"So soon?" Hermione asked. "Oh Merlin, I didn't think you'd be leaving that quickly. That means my plan isn't going to work," she explained more to Parvati and Lavender than to Christine.

"What plan?" The girls exchanged looks with each other before Parvati spoke up.

"Ok don't get mad, but we thought that if we wrote to our families and asked if you could stay with us through the summer, you might be able to stay." Christine's eyes began to water again.

"Thank, that's really sweet of you, but it's an inconvenience for your families. I wouldn't want to impose and my parents probably wouldn't let that happen." It was silent again for a minute until Christine thought out loud.

"Has anyone seen Harry since I left earlier?"

"No, Seamus said he didn't want to talk to anyone," Hermione hesitated a second before she continued. "He also said that you two had some sort of a row or something. Is that true?"

Christine nodded her head and told her friends the events of the afternoon. Before she could remember feeling drowsy, she and the other girls were fast asleep in their warm beds. She woke herself up in the middle of the night as the argument of the afternoon haunted her like a bad dream. As she glanced over the grounds underneath the dormitory window, a soft tapping noise came from the door. She grabbed her cloak that was strewn across her bed and silently crept over to the door and cracked it open.

"Harry, how did you get up here?" she asked as the surprise of his presence washed over her like a bucket of ice water.

"Can I talk to you?"

"What? Now?" Christine looked totally bewildered.

"Yeah, now. The common room is empty." He gently took her hand in his and began to draw Christine out of the room and down the stairs. They sat in front of the fire on the comfortable couches and settled themselves.

"I've been thinking about what you said earlier and you're right. I just... It's so frustrating you know. Since I was a baby everyone who's ever loved me has been taken away from me. My parents, Sirius and now you. Well, I don't know if you love me, but I guess that you at least like me," Harry chortled softly. Christine smiled softly and sat and listened to the wind outside the castle walls for a minute before she spoke up.

"I've never been in love Harry, I don't even know if I'm old enough to know what it is. But I know that if it's what I think it is, I think I fell a long time ago," she told him sweetly. He smiled back at her.

"I thought about what we're going to do about you leaving. I know I can't stop it, but I thought that we could make the best of it. You know, just be together until you leave." He looked to her for approval.

"The other thing I wanted to talk to you about was what you told me this afternoon," he continued.

"Harry, about that, you didn't deserve to be treated like that. I let my temper get the better of me. I knew you were upset about me leaving and that you were just venting. I hope that's not how you really feel anyway," she said with a questioning glance.

"Christine I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out so brutally. I only meant that when I have to fight Voldemort if I love no one, then he won't be able to use them as a hostage."

"Harry is living with no happiness worth it? I don't think you could live like that. Always distancing yourself from everyone around you and never giving yourself a chance to be happy. Who knows when you're going to fight Voldemort? That's one of many things you can't predict. You may not fight him for years to come and you're willing to live a life of solitude based on the unpredictable," Christine professed.

"But that's one thing I _can_ predict," Harry stressed as he got up. "I can predict that if I keep myself from loving you Voldemort won't be able to take you away from me."

"If you keep yourself from loving me, you're denying love itself."

"Don't you see? This is the only way I know that I can keep you safe. I have no other choices!" he screamed.

"Keep telling yourself that Harry. Maybe then you'll believe it," she answered back.

"What are you talking about? I do believe it that's why I said it."

"Yes you said it, but your eyes deny it," she whispered. Christine, who had somehow managed to come within an inch of his face, turned on her heel and quietly slipped back into her dormitory.

Thursday came sooner than anyone expected. None of the sixth year Gryffindors were focused on their schoolwork as they knew what was coming the next day. After lessons, Christine found herself in her dormitory, packing her trunk. Her mind wandered over all the years she spent in Hogwarts. She remembered everything and yet, seemed to be forgetting everything.

Harry had been distanced from everyone all week. He kept to himself most of the time and never let himself get caught up in a conversation with any of his friends. His appearance looked sloppy now a days as he had taken to waking very early in the morning and would wait for Christine in the common room. But he never talked to her. He just watched from where he sat by the fire and wouldn't even look away when she caught him looking at her. Once or twice, she had seen him rub his eyes and massage his head before he knew she was there. On one morning, she had even thought she had seen tears glistening on his face in the firelight.

Her trunk packed and bed made, Christine sat silently on the window sill of the room. She wanted to memorize the scenery of the castle grounds and remember all the little details. As she watched everything go on below her, she noticed a figure strutting around the edge of the forbidden forest. It was odd to see as the figure looked too young to be a professor and too old to be a student. As her eyes traced the movements of the figure, it disappeared.

"What you looking at?" Lavender asked Christine as she entered the room and set down her things.

"Nothing," Christine lied, "Just trying to make a picture of the grounds before I have to leave."

"We're all going to miss you. I can't imagine coming to Hogwarts without you here. You were the one that first broke the ice between all of us remember? It was after our first week of lessons and we were still afraid to talk to each other," Lavender said.

"Yes I remember. We haven't had a song in a long time," Christine joked. "Do you remember the song I sang?"

"No, I just remember thinking 'What on earth is going on here? This girl is singing some song about meeting a wizard.' Then I found out that you were a muggle born and it explained everything," Lavender teased.

"Oh thanks very much. It's nice to know that you think I'm crazy because I sing songs from muggle musicals."

"Well actually at first I was jealous of you. You seemed to be great at everything and then you add this awesome singing voice on top of it, huh, I could've hit you." Lavender smiled before she began to leave. At the door she turned around and told Christine that Harry, Ron and Hermione were looking for her.

"Why didn't they come and get me themselves? Hermione can come up here," Christine thought to herself.

She shrugged and made her way downstairs. She found Harry sitting with Hermione and Ron whispering in front of the fire. It was like every other time something had happened and the friends stayed up late to figure out what it meant.

"What's going on?" Christine questioned the huddled group.

"Dumbledore wants to see us," Harry replied.

"What about?"

"We don't know, but Twopenny is waiting outside the portrait hole to take us to Dumbledore's office. Come on, we have to go."

Once inside Dumbledore's office, the friends found it empty. Their headmaster was nowhere in sight and for the first time there was an uneasy air about the room. The usual cheeriness and welcoming feelings Christine always felt in the office were gone. The pictures of the past headmasters and headmistresses were still. When Dumbledore finally did enter the office, his sparkling blue eyes were exhausted. He looked his age, old and fragile.

"Miss Davet, I am glad to inform you that you will not be leaving us tomorrow as planned."

"What? You mean I get to stay?" Christine echoed happily.

"Yes, but for your protection," Christine settled back into her uncomfortable chair and the kids were silent again as Dumbledore continued to explain himself. "You see, we have discovered that Hogwarts and Hogsmeade have been surrounded by Death Eaters. That's why all the trips to Hogsmeade this term have been cancelled. Harry, do you still have that wonderful map of yours?" Harry nodded his head. "Good. We have told all the heads of houses that students are to remain in their houses and that once everyone is inside we will be placing strong security measures on all the entrances. Harry, if I could borrow that map, it would be much appreciated."

"Sir, would our hiding place be of any use?" Harry questioned.

"Possibly, where is your hiding place located?" Harry began to describe the hidden cove where he asked out Christine and as his description went on, Dumbledore's demeanor changed.

"Harry you cannot ever go to that place again!" Dumbledore demanded. "Promise me, you will not go there!" Harry nodded his head completely lost as to why Dumbledore would become angry with him for this.

"Professor, why is that a bad place for us to hide?" Ron inquired.

"It serves as the headquarters for the Death Eaters operations. Two of the Order's members discovered the hideout the week after Christmas, thanks to the information you shared with Professor Twopenny."

"How did that help them Professor?" Christine questioned.

"When you say the phrase, 'rivers curled and snow unwhirled' before you Apparate it will transfer you to the headquarters."

"But, I found that place on the Marauders' Map and I've never seen anyone walking around in that area," Harry insisted.

"They are under the influence of an Evanesco Potion," Dumbledore explained.

"An Evanesco Potion? I thought Evanesco was a charm that made objects disappear," Hermione asked in complete puzzlement.

"You are quite right Miss Granger. Evanesco is a charm that makes objects disappear. However, when Lord Voldemort was in power all those years ago, he created a potion that would hide his Death Eaters. He discovered that by taking two elements from the nature of the area, placing the charm on them and then liquefying the combination, he would be able to disguise his Death Eaters as part of the earth. That is why they do not show up on Harry's map, they have taken the potion and cannot be detected by any of these tracing spells."

"But then wouldn't we be able to see them walking on the map once they left that area?" Ron reasoned.

"Not if they Disapparated from the area," Hermione answered. Dumbledore nodded his head in agreement and silence fell again.

"Now, if the Death Eaters are able to storm the castle and the Order is unable to stop them, I want you to promise me that you four will keep everyone in your house. We have already informed the Prefects, Head Boy and Head Girl and they are going to do the same. The charms should be strong enough to keep all the houses safely hidden. Food and water will not be a problem as the house elves are hidden as well and will continue to take care of the houses. But I want you to promise me you will stay inside your house. You are not under any circumstances to leave Gryffindor Tower until a member from the Order comes to get you."

"How will we be sure that it's a member from the Order and not a disguised Death Eater?" Christine thought quickly.

"Only the members from the Order know where the houses are going to be hidden. They will be the only ones to know how to get into the houses," Dumbledore professed. "Promise me, that you won't leave the tower. Promise me."

The students nodded their heads in understanding, before Dumbledore instructed Twopenny, who was standing outside the door, to take them back to the common room.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Christine and Hermione trudged back up to the Gryffindor common room behind Twopenny with an ominous feeling growing in their hearts. Harry and Ron followed at a respectful distance as Christine was still quite skeptical when it came to her relationship with a certain Gryffindor Seeker. Not that she wasn't thrilled to be staying, but she was rather disappointed to see how easily Harry could lose his faith in things.

"Professor, do the other teachers know what's happening with the Death Eaters?" Hermione inquired quietly as they reached the Fat Lady.

"Yes they do. But I must ask you not to tell anyone about what Dumbledore just told you," the professor responded. The students assured him that they would not say anything and vanished through the portrait hole.

The common room was somewhat empty, except for a few third years who were playing Exploding Snaps at one of the tables. Hermione and Ron routinely walked over and sat next to the fire waiting for Harry and Christine to join them. As Christine moved to sit, Harry asked if he could talk to her for a second. She nodded and followed him back over to the shadowed corner where she had told him her news.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Ron asked as his eyes followed the pair to the corner.

"Whatever it is, it's most likely to end up in a huge fight, or a long overdue apology," Hermione answered as she turned back to the fire, snuggled up to Ron and grabbed a book.

The pair in the corner were silent for a moment. Christine was uncomfortable in this situation, which she thought probably wasn't a good sign since she was with Harry. He still didn't speak, but sat and stared at his hands.

"Harry, just tell me what it is you want to tell me. I can't stand this silence," Christine expressed as he immediately stopped his squirming.

"Um, I wanted to apologize for the way I acted the other day. There's no excuse for that and it only caused more unhappiness for you and myself," he said after a moment's thought. "I know I can't take any of it back, but I was hoping that maybe you would be willing to forgive me." Christine looked at him with a softer, gentler gaze and listened to what he was saying.

"It's just like I told you on Monday. The people I love are always taken from me. I guess this time it felt worse because it was a different type of love. I promise I'm going to change so that nothing like this happens again."

"I'm not trying to change you Harry. I'm trying to keep you from changing," she got up and gently put her hands on his face. "Don't change Harry. I love you for who you are now, and if you're trying to change that then I'm loving something that doesn't exist. Does that make sense?" Harry's eyes snapped to meet hers, but instead of a soft glimmer, they were filled with a sense of defeat.

"I see. Well, I guess I can't damage this relationship anymore," he whispered and walked up to his dormitory.

Christine was again on the verge of tears when Hermione came over to see if she could help.

"You know that sick feeling you get after you lose something wonderful?" she asked Hermione. Her friend nodded her head in a slow, somber manner. "That's the feeling I have right now."

"What do you mean?" Hermione questioned, tying to hold back the mist forming in her eyes.

"I think I just lost him Hermione. After I told him that I didn't want him to change, that I just wanted him to be himself, he walked away. It's funny isn't it?"

"What is?" Hermione asked in confusion as a daring tear escaped her eye.

"You tell the one you love to be themselves and they leave," Christine finished with small, disbelieving smile and tears streaming down her cheeks silently.

After yet another sleepless night, Christine woke early and headed down to breakfast alone. When she reached the common room, a wave of unhappiness washed over her as she saw that Harry was not waiting for her. She took a deep breath and continued on to the Great Hall.

The smell of bacon and eggs, ham and hash browns, and freshly squeezed orange and pumpkin juice filled her senses. She paused at the door and just looked around. Students sat at every table eating and laughing with their friends. The low rumble of conversations and the scraping of forks on plates sounded like welcoming bells to Christine. She walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Ginny Weasley and her friends. Every now and then Ginny and her friends asked her different questions trying to get her interested in the conversation, but every attempt failed. Christine would go back to eating silently or picking at her food.

"Hey, why didn't you wait for us?" Hermione questioned as she entered hand in hand with Ron and Harry slowly bringing up the rear.

"I didn't want to wake you. I got up kind of early," she explained. Harry ever so subtly moved down to sit with Neville and Dean. Christine looked back down at her food and just pushed it around the plate.

Wings and feathers flew everywhere as the mail arrived minutes later.

"I'm going to go back to the common room," Christine stated.

"Are you sure? You don't look so great," Ron said with a mouthful of food.

"Yeah I'm sure. I kind of feel weird."

"Hold on Christine. There's a letter here for you," Hermione pointed out. Christine took the letter from Hermione and looked at it for a second. She read it through and couldn't make any sense out of it.

"That's weird," she said a little more loudly than she had meant to.

"What is?" Ron asked without looking up from his plate.

"It's from my mum and dad. They say that they are coming to get me today from the castle instead of the station. Dumbledore told me that I wasn't leaving though."

"I can't think of why he would tell you that you were staying if it wasn't true," Hermione professed. "I would assume that he would've told you they were coming to the castle and not the station," she looked the letter over for a second and made confused faces at it. "I think you should go and see him."

"I think I will. Right now," Christine agreed.

She walked up to the teachers' table and politely asked to speak with Professor Dumbledore.

"Excuse me Professor, but I just got a letter from my parents saying that I'm supposed to go home with them today," she explained. "I thought you said that it was unsafe for anyone to leave."

"You are correct Miss Davet. It is very unsafe to leave the castle at any time within the next week. I wonder, could you please meet me in my office? I must speak with Professor Flitwick for a moment, then I will be in."

"Of course Professor."

Shortly after Christine arrived, Professor Dumbledore entered and asked to see the letter. He examined if for a moment before turning his attention back to his guest.

"This troubles me indeed, Miss Davet," he started. "You see this puts the validity of the previous letter into perspective. If this is a fraudulent letter, as I assume it to be, then the people that have contacted you are dangerous. The first letter may not have been from your family at all, but Death Eaters."

"But why would Death Eaters want me? It doesn't make any sense," she reasoned.

"It does when you think of how you are connected to Mr. Potter. I believe you two have had a relationship together for the last couple of months. By taking you away from him and keeping you as a hostage they could have an advantage over him," Dumbledore explained.

_"Ironic. That's why Harry wanted me to go to Australia with my family, so they couldn't do just that_," she thought to herself.

"I think we need to contact your parents and find out if your father really has been transferred or not. Are they connected to the Floo network?"

"No, sir. They don't have any type of magical communications in their house at all. But my brother and sister do," she replied a little more hopefully.

"Then we shall contact them. I don't think an owl fluttering around a U.S. military officer's home is a very good idea. Tell me, is your sister still in France?" he asked. When Christine nodded her head, Dumbledore scribbled on a small piece of parchment, conjured his Patronus, and sent the note to Careen in France.

"I'm afraid all we can do now is wait until your sister responds. But try not to leave the castle walls today. Obviously Herbology is going to be a must, but don't find yourself walking alone back to the castle," Dumbledore warned with a cocked eyebrow. Christine nodded in understanding and was excused from the room.

Lessons that Friday were unbelievably long and tedious. So it wasn't hard to understand that Christine was finding it even harder to concentrate that day. Her mind wandered from her school work after five minutes of class, and she began to wonder who she knew that could have tried to take her from Hogwarts.

"Miss Davet, you are wanted in the Headmaster's office, immediately," Professor Snape announced over the dull buzz of the classroom. Her classmates looked at her with knowing glances. She gave Hermione and Ron a hug expecting this to be the last time she would see them for a long time. Harry, who was sitting with Ron near the back of the room, only sat there. Christine gave him a hug, he didn't return, and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'll miss you Harry," she whispered to him and she disappeared through the door.

The walk through the corridors was quite different when classes were in session compared to when classes were getting out. Obviously, Christine expected it to be quiet, but this was a bit nerve wracking. There was no sign that any cheeriness or laughter was ever heard through those corridors. It was just quiet.

"Hello Christine," a deep voice said from up ahead.

"Eric, what are you doing here?" she asked apprehensively.

"Your parents have asked me to escort you through to King's Cross Station," he stated as he moved closer and closer to her. He seemed to be on edge and very nervous.

"It was you. You're the one who knew about me and Harry. You're a Death Eater aren't you?" she shouted realization dawning on her. Eric remained silent and his eyes narrowed as they fell on her, "Why would you do that Eric?" she shouted.

"Because the Dark Lord asked me to. Now you are coming with me." He grabbed her by the arm while she pulled out her wand. He smirked at the wand tip and didn't even flinch when she began to mutter an incantation. He slapped her across the face which resulted in her wand flying from her hand.

"Next time you put a wand to my head, you better finish the job," he told her as he picked her up and slammed her against the stone. Her head was whipped back and came crashing against the stone again.

"Petrificus Totalus!" someone yelled from down the corridor. Eric's body became rigid and his grip loosened around her arms. She could hear the footsteps running, coming closer and closer to her.

"Christine, can you hear me?" the voice sounded again. As she fought to stay conscious she made out bright green eyes and jet black hair.

"Harry, wha–," Christine's vision went black and her body went limp.


	12. Chapter 12

A few minutes later, Christine opened her eyes to find herself being carried by a very worried looking Harry in the direction of the Hospital Wing. She struggled against his grip to try and get down, but it was no use. Harry had her legs swept over his arms and one of her arms wrapped around his neck.

"Harry let me down," she whined against his shoulder.

"No way, Madame Pomfrey needs to take a look at that bump on the back of your head," he replied firmly.

She pinched him in the arm that was holding her legs and when his grip loosened for that half a second, she was able to swing her feet down to the floor.

"What do you think you're doing? I'm just going to catch you and take you to the Hospital Wing anyway."

"Fine, then at least take me to see Dumbledore first," she leaned against the wall as the corridor began to spin slowly. "If you don't, Eric will get away."

"Who's Eric? If he's that guy that did this to you, don't worry about him."

"Just take me to Dumbledore, Harry."

He nodded his head and slipped one arm around her waist, put her arm around his neck and he helped her to the Headmaster's office. As they continued through the cold halls, Christine's head became heavier and heavier. The throbbing was almost unbearable. The closer they got to the office, the more her head drifted to Harry's shoulder.

"Peach rings," Harry muttered under his breath as he helped Christine onto one of the moving stairs that spun up to Dumbledore's office. The couple crossed the threshold, into the office to find Dumbledore sitting at his desk, pondering over multiple pages of parchment.

"Harry, Christine, what brings you to my office?" the Headmaster inquired with a shocked expression.

"Professor, I know who told Voldemort about Harry and me. It was Eric, Careen's fiancé," Christine blurted out as Harry helped her into the nearest chair.

"Miss Davet, are you well?" After attempting to shake her head, and failing miserably, Harry spoke up for her.

"No she's not, Professor. That man that is tied up in the corridor leading to the dungeons threw her against the wall and she cracked her head. Who is he?" Before Christine could answer, Dumbledore called and sent Professors McGonagall and Flitwick to find Eric.

"He's my sister's fiancé. He was the link that told Voldemort about Harry and me, Professor."

Professor Dumbledore tapped his fingers together, thinking over the situation very carefully.

"I don't think a full scale attack on the school is what the Death Eaters are planning. After this last attempt to capture Miss Davet, I think they might be thinking of luring Harry away from the castle in order to get him out of the reach of help."

"But why would the Death Eaters surround the castle? That doesn't seem to make any sense," stated Harry.

"Professor, may I be excused? I think I need to go see Madame Pomfrey," Christine interrupted as her head continued to throb.

"Of course, Christine. Harry will you please make sure she arrives safely?"

Harry nodded his head and helped Christine out of the office.

The walk to the Hospital Wing was long. Not only was it on the other side of the school, but Harry and Christine were walking in an uncomfortable silence.

"Harry, can we stop for a minute?" Christine asked as she leaned against one of the walls.

"Sure," he replied. Christine took a few deep breaths trying not to pass out again until they were in the Hospital Wing. "I can carry you if you like."

"No, it's ok. I can walk," she smiled back weakly. Another few minutes of an uncomfortably slow walk and they stopped again.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry you?" Harry offered again.

"I'm sure, Harry, thank you," Christine restated. As they started their walk to the Hospital Wing again, Harry spoke up.

"Christine, I've been thinking about our talk the other night. I know I messed up pretty bad and the other night didn't go exactly to plan so, I just want you to know that I finally understand what you were saying." Christine's face broke out into another weak smile. "I don't really have an explanation for why I over reacted, but I didn't want you to leave thinking that I was mad at you."

"Harry, I know you're not mad at me. It's just the stress of my moving that's started all of this." They reached the door and Harry helped her inside.

"What happened?" Madame Pomfrey asked as Harry helped Christine onto one of the beds. Harry explained everything once more and quickly Madame Pomfrey healed her injury.

When they reached the Gryffindor common room the next morning, they were met with millions of questions on why Christine was still there and where they had been all night. The only answer they got was that her parents had been delayed and that they had been trying to rearrange a time for her parents to come and get her. Once the questions began to die down, Harry asked to finish their conversation from earlier. But this time, there was no uneasiness between the two.

"Christine, I don't want to waste anymore time. I want to make the most of the time we have before you leave, so do you think we could give it another go?" he asked nervously.

"I think I would like that," she smiled. Harry leaned in, gave her a gentle kiss, hugged her tight and they made their way down to their first class.

The next day, Harry and Christine were back to their old ways. Holding hands, spending time together and being happy for the first time in a long time. The day went by fast and soon the couple found themselves lounging comfortably in front of the fireplace with Ron and Hermione.

"It took you two long enough to get back together," Ron grinned as he leisurely put his arm around Hermione and she snuggled up to him. Harry and Christine only smiled from where they were sitting.

"Did you tell them about Eric?" Christine whispered in Harry's ear.

"I'm going to tell them once Colin and Dennis go up to bed," he answered.

"What are you two whispering about?" Hermione asked with an accusatory look.

"You'll find out soon enough," Christine replied with her own sly grin.

After another twenty minutes of scratching their parchment with quills, the Creevy brothers finally retired to their dormitories.

"Ok, we have something new to tell you about the Death Eaters," Harry started immediately after the doors from upstairs shut.

"What's up?" Ron questioned.

"Yesterday, when Harry and I came back to the common room, we were returning from the Hospital Wing," Christine started.

"Why were you there?" Hermione asked.

"Just let us explain," Harry answered.

"My sister's fiancé, Eric, is a Death Eater. He told Voldemort about Harry and me and came to kidnap me yesterday. When I was called out to see Professor Dumbledore, he was waiting for me in the corridors and he was about to take me away when Harry showed up," Christine finished.

"So that's why you cut your arm that day in Potions, Harry. How did you know she was in trouble?" Hermione inquired as the conversation became more interesting.

"That is a good question, Hermione. How did you know?" Christine said.

"I didn't," Harry confessed. "I just had to talk to you one last time before you left. I didn't want you to leave thinking that I didn't love you anymore." Christine snuggled up to him and he slipped his arm around her waist.

"But how did you end up in the Hospital Wing?" Ron asked apprehensively.

"That bastard hit her and she cracked her head on the wall," Harry growled in response while softly stroking her hair at the back of her head where the impact had occurred.

"Harry, watch your language," Christine scolded not really meaningfully.

"So, I'm guessing that you're not leaving anytime soon then?" Hermione predicted hopefully. Christine shook her head with a wide smile forming on her face.

"But back to the Death Eaters," Christine began again after the brief moment of celebrating. "Dumbledore doesn't think that they are going to invade Hogwarts anymore."

"Really? Then that letter was part of a trap," Hermione muttered as she started to piece together the puzzle.

"Dumbledore thinks that they're trying to use Christine as bait to get to me," Harry chimed in. "If that were to happen and I got into serious danger, I wouldn't be able to call for help." He felt Christine shudder at this thought and tightened his hold on her.

"Well, I think we need to get onto a less threatening topic for now. We should be celebrating you two getting back together," Hermione said quickly. For the rest of the night the four friends laughed and joked before retiring for the night not knowing what was to come the next day.


	13. Chapter 13

The next afternoon, the four friends sat around the lake. The morning classes had gone by quite quickly, and they had the rest of the day off. Harry and Christine were laughing at what Hermione was drawing on Ron's face while he slept. When she had finished, she hid her wand in her pocket and called out his name.

"What?" he whined as he slowly woke up.

"Nothing, we just thought you'd like to join us in the land of the living instead of sleeping your life away," Hermione answered quickly.

"Why would you think that?" he asked with a smile. Hermione hit him. "Hey now, was that necessary?"

"Yes, now please try to stay awake. Then I won't have a chance to draw anymore pictures on your face," she added. Ron's face turned from a sleepy, lethargic look to one of panic. Harry and Christine erupted into laughter as Ron examined his reflection in the lake.

"Ron! I can't believe you just did that, it's freezing out here!" Hermione scolded him as he pulled his head out of the water. He just gave her a cheeky grin, sending the other two into another round of laughter. After the small and meaningless argument between Ron and Hermione, the group relaxed into a comfortable silence.

Harry was sitting against the trunk of the beech tree with his arms around Christine as she was snuggled against his stomach. Ron was lying with his head on Hermione's stomach watching the waves on the lake.

"I wonder what makes the waves so big or small," Ron said thinking this was a very smart question.

"The moon," the other three answered absent-mindedly.

"Bloody hell, how do you know that?" he asked surprised at the quick and simple answer his friends had given him.

"Muggle education," Christine stated, "In primary school, the older students learn about the ocean. Seeing as you didn't go to muggle schools, it's not surprising that you would wonder about that."

"We'd better be getting back," Harry suggested, "It's starting to get dark." The others agreed and began to pack up their blankets when they heard a loud scream from inside the Forbidden Forest.

"What was that?" Ron asked stupidly. Before anyone could answer a silver hawk flew past the group then came back. It circled Christine until it disappeared in a wispy silver cloud of smoke.

"Whose was that?" Harry asked urgently.

With tears in her eyes, Christine looked up at Harry and answered him in a voice barely above a whisper, "Careen's."

"We have to get a message to Dumbledore," Hermione said.

"By the time we get up there, she could be long gone," Harry replied. "Hermione, send your patronus to Dumbledore telling him we're in the Forbidden Forest. By the look on Christine's face, it doesn't look like she's going to stay here."

"I'm going with you too," Ron added.

Harry, Ron and Christine took off across the grounds toward the Forbidden Forest while Hermione scribbled down a note for Dumbledore and sent it to him. Then she took off after them.

The forest was getting darker by the second as the sun set. The group had no idea where they were going or what they were going to meet once they got there, but they were determined to find Christine's sister. As they were creeping through the vines and bushes, Christine realized something. This was exactly the situation that Voldemort wanted to create.

"Harry, you have to go back," Christine explained.

"No, I'm not going to leave you and your sister in the middle of the Forbidden Forest with a bunch of Death Eater's around."

"But Harry, we're playing into his trap. If we go deeper into the forest, there's a more likely chance we're going to meet Death Eaters."

"She's right Harry," Hermione agreed as she caught up to the group. "If you think you're ready to finish this now, then we should go on, if not, don't put yourself in a vulnerable situation."

"Look, I'm not turning back and if you want to turn back then you all go," he stated firmly with an obvious emphasis on the word 'you.'

"I have to go help my sister. I'm staying," Christine said simply. "But I think Ron and Hermione should go back."

"What? Why?" Ron asked a little insulted.

"Because, one, you know what is going on down here and if you go back you can help Dumbledore to locate us. And two, the less people we have sneaking through the forest the more of a chance we'll have at finding my sister and getting away."

"She's right," Harry said, "Now, you two go back and we'll keep going. We've already lost too much time standing here." Harry and Christine turned to leave.

"Wait!" Hermione shouted. "How are we going to find you? You're not going to be in this spot when we get back."

"The Marauder's Map," Harry decided. "_Accio Marauder's Map_!" The thin piece of parchment came zooming into the woods a few minutes after it was summoned. Harry and Christine glanced at it for a second. "Pettigrew has her," Harry announced dejectedly, "And he's heading for…no, he can't know about that!"

"About what?" Christine asked.

"He's taking her to the spot where I asked you out. Look, he's disappeared, but we can still see Careen. That's where they've been meeting!" he shouted all of a sudden. "This place fits the description Parvati gave us! River's curled, the water winding around the little patches of land and there was no snow, the snow unswirled."

"That means more Death Eaters," Hermione spoke up.

"Get to the castle and show Dumbledore where this place is on the map. He'll be able to bring help from there."

Having no choice but to go along with the plan, Hermione and Ron sped off back towards the castle with the map and the information. Harry and Christine went in the opposite direction of their friends, very slowly and very quietly. Their walk to the entrance of the isolated hideaway was not long. As they were on the reverse side of where they had entered the first time there, the pair didn't have to climb through the caves.

Before they could be seen, Harry and Christine took cover behind a dead tree trunk lying on the ground and the bushes that had grown over it. Their eyes scanned the area for any signs of Careen, and when they finally found her it was not what they were hoping for. From what they could see, she was unconscious; at least they wished she was. She was tied to a tree and her head hung loosely in front of her. A huge open gash covered the right side of her neck and several bruises and scratches ran down her arms.

Christine was on the verge of tears and thought she was going to be sick. Harry searched for any other Death Eaters besides Pettigrew, and found seven to their right and nine to their left.

"We're going to have to wait for Dumbledore and the others to get here, there's too many of them for just the two of us," he explained in a whisper.

"Harry, we have to get her up to the Hospital Wing. Look at her; she'll die of blood loss if she doesn't get there soon." Harry looked around to double check he had counted the Death Eaters correctly and began to piece together a plan.

"All right, this is what…," Harry silenced himself as the Death Eaters began shouting to one another.

"She's not going to tell us anything! Pettigrew's beat her up too badly for her to speak," one of the smaller Death Eater's shouted.

"Yes, but when she comes to, she could be a very good source of information," another much more threatening Death Eater argued.

"_Ennervate_!" a cold female voice shouted exasperatedly. Careen's head slowly lifted up and rested against the tree trunk as if it were too heavy to hold. "Tell us what Dumbledore is planning or we will make you suffer," the same voice said simply. Careen remained silent and glared at the Death Eater. "You were in Gryffindor weren't you? Well, all that courage and loyalty won't save you now. It just signed your death certificate. _Avada Kedavra!_" A lightning fast bolt of green shot out of the wand and hit Careen in the chest; her body went limp.

It took all of Christine's strength to keep herself from screaming and she was crying freely into Harry's shoulder as he held her. The Death Eaters argued back and forth before dispersing within the area and went back to whatever they were doing before interrogating Careen.

"Come on, we have to get out of here," Harry whispered. They began to look for a chance to escape. When they thought the Death Eaters were immersed in their own business, they crept back toward the entrance. As they neared the forest, they heard a loud noise from behind them and before they knew it, they had been spotted.

"It's Potter!" an alarmed Death Eater yelled. In a hurry the rest of the Death Eaters had grabbed their wands and began firing spell after spell at the couple. Harry pulled Christine through the woods, ducked them behind trees and managed to keep them out of the line of fire long enough to get to the open Hogwarts grounds where most of the teachers and order members were approaching the forest.

"They're right behind us!" Harry screamed as he and Christine raced up the hill. The Death Eaters, oblivious to the extra help the pair now had, came charging out of the forest shooting spells. Without a moment's hesitation, the teachers and order members fired back.

The Death Eaters refused to retreat and pressed forward, eventually reaching a distance that could have warranted hand to hand combat. Stunning spells, Unforgivable Curses, torture hexes and all kinds of spells came hurtling from the wand tips of the Death Eaters. Christine was fighting back with a vengeance. Spells flew from her wand faster than the wind and hit their mark more often than not.

The fight raged on. Soon the small group of evil wizards and witches began to realize they were outnumbered and outmatched. The Order and teachers were far too advanced in their fighting skills for the on coming attackers to have a chance. After only a few of the Death Eaters had fallen, a retreat was ordered and the remaining Death Eaters made a dash for their hideaway. Some of the order pursued them into the forest while the others rounded up the ones lying on the ground and returned them, tied up, to the castle where they would wait to be shipped to Azkaban.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were looking for Christine on their way back to the castle. They came across her sitting by herself in the middle of the field, elbows resting on her knees and her head buried in her arms.

"What happened?" Hermione asked as she rushed to her friend's side and tried to look into her face.

"They killed her, Hermione! They killed her," she cried as she briefly looked up at her friend before breaking down again. Hermione gasped and tears began to form in her eyes. Harry picked up Christine in the same fashion he had when he attempted to take her to the Hospital Wing; she didn't fight his grip this time, but sobbed into his chest as they walked back to the school.

Harry and Ron sat in the Gryffindor Common room while Hermione and the other Gryffindor girls tried to comfort Christine.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, where are Miss Davet and Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall questioned somberly as she walked through the portrait hole.

"They're in the sixth year dorms," Ron replied quietly. Professor McGonagall disappeared for a moment into the girls' side of the tower and returned with a very desolate looking Christine. Hermione had her arm around Christine's shoulders and looked as if she had been crying as well. Harry rushed up to Christine and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he embraced her in a tight hug.

"If you four would kindly follow me, the headmaster wishes to speak with you," Professor McGonagall explained.

The students grimly followed their head of house up to the headmaster's office.

"Please take a seat," Dumbledore said from behind his desk. The students did as they were told. "Miss Davet, I would like to apologize to you." Christine looked up at him confusion written on her face. "You see, I was beginning to get worried when I didn't hear from your sister. In fact before you turned up in my office yesterday I was going to send Remus and Alastor to find her. But when you told me that Eric was here, I assumed that she was safe in France. I failed to realize that once Eric's feeble attempt to abduct you, Voldemort would lure you in through a different angle." Christine was in tears again, as was Hermione, but the headmaster was obligated to continue.

"But why would he take Careen? It seems like too much trouble to go through, especially since she was in France and we're here." Harry choked out.

"Because he knew that Christine would do anything to help her sister, he gathered that much from Eric. And knowing that Miss Davet and you were engaged in a relationship, he believed that you, Mr. Potter, would follow as well. I believe that all the Dementors we believed to be lurking about the grounds were merely a diversion so that we would think something bigger was planned."

"And we played right into the trap," Christine sighed again as more tears followed.

"Again, I'm sorry for assuming the safety of your sister was definite. The mistake of an old man has cost a young woman her life, and I will never forgive myself for that."

"Is there anything else Professor? I'd like to talk to my parents tonight if you don't mind," Christine explained.

"That is another topic I wish to discuss with you. Would you three mind waiting outside?" Dumbledore said. The others left silently and waited for Christine outside the door.

"Christine, I was hesitant in contacting your parents. Sending an owl would give the location of your home to anyone tracking it and since they are Muggles, the Ministry of Magic will not connect them to the Floo Network. I have, however, have been given permission to send you home by Portkey."

"How long will I be there?" she asked, hoping she would have enough time to talk about this with her parents.

"This is where it becomes difficult," he started. "You see, if you were to return home, now would be the safest possible moment for you to do so. I'm still not sure if you're parents' letter about the move is credible, but if it is, it would be best for you to stay there instead of returning."

"Do you believe the letter to be valid?" Christine inquired.

"I believe the first one to be so, yes," the headmaster admitted.

"Do my parents know anything about Careen?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Then I have to go home tonight," she determined. Dumbledore nodded his head in understanding.

"Be back here in half an hour with your belongings."

"Yes sir." She exited the room and returned to the others.

By the looks on their faces, Christine knew that her friends wanted to ask what had happened but were keeping their mouths shut out of consideration. Christine smiled sadly.

"I'm leaving tonight. My parents don't know what's happened and I don't want some stranger telling my mother that her daughter has been murdered. Her worst nightmare is that some man shows up on her doorstep to tell her that my dad has been killed and I'm not going to allow that to come true for my sister," she explained as she began to walk back to Gryffindor Tower.

Nobody tried to talk her out of going home. They knew that her family was important to her and they understood why she had to go home. But it still hurt, especially Harry. He waited for her in the common room while she went up to gather her things. It seemed all of Gryffindor house was there waiting for her.

She descended the stairs slowly while trying not to tip over her trunk. Harry got up to help her. Christine made her way through the common room saying her goodbyes to everyone. The last two people were waiting for her near the portrait hole; it was Ron and Hermione.

"I'm going to miss you," she said to Hermione as she gave her a hug. "I'll write to you every week. I know you'll be studying for N.E.W.T.'s so I will try to write on the weekends." Hermione laughed a little.

"Bye Ron, I already told Ginny this, but I want you to tell your family goodbye and thanks for everything. I don't think my summers would have been half as great if I didn't get to visit the Weasley's."

"I'm sure they'd love to have you anytime, just don't forget about us all right?"

"There's no chance of that happening," she laughed as she gave him a hug as well.

She turned and with one last goodbye, climbed out the portrait hole, closely followed by Harry.

"I'm going to miss you most of all," she whispered to him as they walked down the halls. "Harry, I want you to do me a favor," she continued when he didn't answer back.

"Anything."

"Promise me that you will try to date some other girls. We don't know what the future holds, and I don't want you to miss the chance of finding happiness."

"But I've already found it. It's just taking a vacation for a little while."

"Promise me, you won't feel guilty about dating someone else."

"Is that what you're planning to do?"

"Promise me, Harry. And you already said you'd do me this favor," she begged completely ignoring his question.

"I promise." They reached the steps of Dumbledore's office.

Christine gave him a hug and kissed him. "I'm going to miss you," she repeated.

"I'm going to miss you too." She let go of him, and walked into Dumbledore's office.

"Here you are, Miss Davet," Dumbledore handed her a shiny trinket that even Hermione had never heard of before.

"Goodbye Miss Davet. I wish you well in your future and if you get the chance, please try to come back to England. I daresay that our young Mr. Potter will make several attempts at locating you, but England is a much better place to live than Australia."

"Thank you sir, for everything," she smiled. Dumbledore tapped his wand on the trinket and Christine felt the familiar tug behind her bellybutton. Hogwarts vanished from her view.

She arrived back home. Her mother was packing the last couple of boxes. The rest of the house was empty and cold looking.

"Christine, what are you doing home?" her mother's soothing voice sounded.

"Mother, I have something to tell you," Christine choked.

**AN: Well there it is! The End has come and gone. I hope you all enjoyed the story and I'm thinking of doing an epilogue, but if I don't get a lot of feedback on this then I might not do it. I've kind of steered away from Harry Potter fics so far as writing goes and I'm writing my own story called Loving A Stranger that has absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter. So if you get bored one day, head on over to and read my story! Adios, amigos!**


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